Wigmore, John H.

English

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Louisiana Law ReviewVolume 1 | Number 4May 1939HISTOIME DE L'ORGANISATIONJUDICIAIME EN PAYS D'ISLAM, Volume I(History of the Organization of the Judiciary inIslamic Regions), by Emile Tyan.* Annales del'Universit6 de Lyon; Librairie du Recueil Sirey,Paris, 1938. Pp. xvi, 528.John H. WigmoreThis Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by the Law Reviews and Journals at LSU Law Digital Commons. It has been accepted forinclusion in Louisiana Law Review by an authorized editor of LSU Law Digital Commons. For more information, please contactkayla.reed@law.lsu.edu.Repository CitationJohn H. Wigmore, HISTOIME DE L'ORGANISATION JUDICIAIME EN PAYS D'ISLAM, Volume I (History of the Organization of theJudiciary in Islamic Regions), by Emile Tyan.* Annales de l'Universit6 de Lyon; Librairie du Recueil Sirey, Paris, 1938. Pp. xvi, 528., 1 La. L.Rev. (1939)Available at: https://digitalcommons.law.lsu.edu/lalrev/vol1/iss4/20ReviewsHISTOIME DE L'ORGANISATION JUDICIAIME EN PAYS D'ISLAM, VolumeI (History of the Organization of the Judiciary in Islamic Re-gions), by Emile Tyan.* Annales de l'Universit6 de Lyon;Librairie du Recueil Sirey, Paris, 1938. Pp. xvi, 528.We can learn almost all about Islamic law from the varioustreatises available in English, French, and Dutch. But hithertowe could find out little about the judiciary and its development.The monographs of Savvas Pacha on the Turkish system (1892,1902) and Gottheil's translation (1908) of Al Kindi's History ofthe Egyptian Cadis have been almost the only sources of informa-tion, and yet not of the history of the system from its beginnings.Now comes this treatise of Judge Tyan, which, beginning at thebeginning, illuminates the whole path of its development in allthe regions of Islam.This first volume in Chapter 1 sketches the administration ofjustice in pre-Mohammedan Arabia and later under Mohammedhimself. It next proceeds in Chapter 2 to its main subject, theevolution of the kadi, or judge. Chapter 3 takes up the kadi'sjurisdiction, his qualifications, and his costume. Chapter 4 elab-orates upon the "composition of the tribunal" in its other aspects-the advisers, the jurisprudents (mufti), the witnesses, the at-torneys, the hearing. Chapter 5 examines the revelations of liter-ature as to the judiciary's morals and manners in the variouscountries, as contrasted with the ideal judge depicted in the booksof theory. (And here the tale is not a pleasing one; yet we wonderwhether an account of the American judge based only on the re-corded complaints of critical contemporaries would be regardedby us as correct in respect to the average judge of today?) Chap-ter 6 concludes with an account of the salaries and perquisites ofthe judiciary.It would be out of place here to enlarge upon the details ofthe Islamic system in contrast with our own. The author's ac-count must be read to be appreciated. But we must pay tributeboth to the absolute lucidity and completeness of the treatmentand to the comprehensiveness of the author's documentation.*Judge of the Court of Appeal, and Lecturer in the French School ofLaw, Beyrouth, Syria.[8611LOUISIANA LAW REVIEWThis book introduces us intimately to the Islamic point of viewand the spirit of the whole system.The remarkable feature of Islamic law, that attracts the in-terest of all who look into it, is its development exclusively bytreatises and opinions. This feature, to be sure, marked also theRoman law (up to the later Imperial era) and the Hindu law.But the total absence of development by statute and decree, in ahighly developed system spread out over a dozen kingdoms, isunique, and must excite the curiosity and wonder of all who havedipped into comparative law.And another singular feature-unparalleled, we believe, inany other system-is the dependence in modern Islamic courtson jurists who composed their works a thousand years ago. Theseleading jurists, who founded schools, have of course been suc-ceeded by commentators after commentators. But even commen-tators of five and six hundred years ago are still quoted textuallyas authorities for a decision of today, based on a continuous tradi-tion. This cannot be paralleled in any European country (exceptperhaps occasionally in English real property law).One occasionally finds a statement in some modem Euro-pean treatise on Mohammedanism that its law has been staticand that it has failed to respond to social changes. Nevertheless,at the Hague International Congress of Comparative Law, in 1937,we listened, in the Oriental section, to a lively debate betweenjurists from Persia, Egypt and Algeria, on the liability in Islamiclaw of the father of a family for injury caused by the unruly scionin the use of the family automobile!We shall welcome the second volume of Judge Tyan's valu-able work, which will deal with the varied powers of the kadiand with the other minor and special jurisdictions having someshare in the administration of justice.JOHN H. WIGMORtLAWYERS AND THE PROMOTION OF JUSTICE, by Esther Lucile Brown.Russell Sage Foundation, New York, 1938. Pp. 302. $1.00.Aristotle thought that justice was the greatest of all virtues.Yet it is possible to spend three years in the study of law in thiscountry without ever hearing the word! In a world of swift anddrastic change, political and legal institutions are endangered, andDean Emeritus, Northwestern University School of Law.[Vol. I

HISTOIME DE L\u27ORGANISATION JUDICIAIME EN PAYS D\u27ISLAM, Volume
I (History of the Organization of the Judiciary in Islamic Regions),
by Emile Tyan.* Annales de l\u27Universit6 de Lyon;
Librairie du Recueil Sirey, Paris, 1938. Pp. xvi, 528.

https://digitalcommons.law.lsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1100&amp;context=lalrev

HISTOIME DE L\u27ORGANISATION JUDICIAIME EN PAYS D\u27ISLAM, Volume I (History of the Organization of the Judiciary in Islamic Regions), by Emile Tyan.* Annales de l\u27Universit6 de Lyon; Librairie du Recueil Sirey, Paris, 1938. Pp. xvi, 528.

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