Civil and Islamic Legal Tradition Assignment

Research Essay: Civil and Islamic Legal Traditions Assignment Instructions

Overview

For this assignment, we analyze the Islamic legal tradition. This tradition has many different interpretations in our world, but like most legal traditions it is unique in its history and traditions. This tradition, referred to by our textbook author as the law of later revelation, has connections to the other legal traditions you have already studied. Considering what we learned about the Civil Law tradition last module; we will compare the two legal traditions. This assignment hones your research and writing and sharpens your analytical skills by requiring you to identify similarities between two legal traditions that seem vastly different.

Instructions

Over the past two modules you have examined two different legal traditions: Civil and Islamic. The Civil legal tradition focuses on the individual while Islamic legal tradition focuses on the revelation. At first glance, these two systems may seem vastly different. However, there are some similarities. In this essay, explain 3 areas where these two systems are similar. The essay should be structured as follows:

• Similarity #1 between the Civil legal tradition and the Islamic legal tradition.
• Similarity #2 between the Civil legal tradition and the Islamic legal tradition.
• Similarity #3 between the Civil legal tradition and the Islamic legal tradition.

Your essay must be 5–6 pages in current Bluebook format and contain at least 5 scholarly sources in addition to/other than the course textbook and the Bible. Wikipedia does not count as a scholarly source. Include headings for clear organization. Cover Pages will not count toward the page total, and your citations should be in-text citations (not footnotes, endnotes, reference pages, etc.).

Note: Your assignment will be checked for originality via the SafeAssign plagiarism tool.

ANSWER

Civil and Islamic Legal Traditions

Introduction

Controlling human behavior has been a major challenge to society over the years. Coming up with rules and punishments for going against the rules has been the primary strategy of containing human behavior. The rules and laws formed are usually designed according to society’s beliefs of what is right and what is wrong. However, laws in the legal system are based off of philosophical structures. Civil and religious laws form the major legal systems across the world (Gorski, 2019). Civil laws are concerned with the well-being of members of society. They are established to observe that human rights are not violated. Civil laws are not dependent on judges. They are written down and codified, though. However, the Islamic concept of the law portrays that the law comes from Allah. From the Islamic concept, Allah’s laws cannot be altered, and violators of these laws await tough consequences. Although civil laws focus more on an individual, whereas the Islamic legal tradition focuses more on revelations, they consist of a few similarities. However, they come out as totally different. This paper explains three similarities that exist between the two systems.

One visual similarity of the legal and Islamic systems is that both have authority over contracts, like in officiating marriages. Civil laws apply in various aspects of the marriage process (Sheehan, 2019). The law plays a part in combining marriages as well as annulling the marriages when the partners decide. In the cases where the unions have to be annulled, civil laws again come in to sort out matters dealing with custody, child support, adoptions, and other family matters that may follow. Issues concerning marriages are usually considered special because none of the involved parties can be accused of committing a civil crime; the law applies without any of the parties having to break the law. One thing about civil law is that it keeps growing based on developments. For instance, civil laws have been adjusted to accommodate current issues like same-sex marriages, artificial conception, surrogate motherhood, and vitro fertilization, to mention some. At the end of the day, these laws are obligated to protect all parties’ rights in the marriage institution and that there is fair treatment.

The Islamic concept of the law agrees with a different culture but still covers contractual matters. For example, in marriage matters, it is up to Islamic law to determine the kind of marriage that is held. These laws are limited to arranged and forced marriages, inter-religious unions, and marriage legal age. Further, Islamic law defines what behavior is acceptable in the institution and which one is not (Ahmed et al., 2019). It clarifies gender roles, sexuality, rights, and obligations of the parties. Just like in the civil system, Islamic laws also cover matters of divorce. Marriage is considered a crucial matter in the Islamic system, and the law is clear about its position regarding marriage matters. For instance, celibacy is not accepted in the Islamic system, and this goes for all Islam. It is clear that both the Islamic and Civil systems play a significant role in marriage processes. They both have the capacity to pronounce a couple married and also help in the divorce process. These laws may be applied in different ways, but the end goal is met in both.

Far from marriage contracts, civil law and Islamic laws apply to other contracts like business contracts. Civil laws exist to make sure members observe the set rules based on the contractual obligations and duties. It is up to the system to ensure the terms of the contract are arrived at in good faith. Still, on the same note, contract laws usually operate based on the Islamic doctrine. They operate protecting human dignity, property, and religion as well. The three mentioned issues make up the six principles that make up Islamic law. For this matter, business contracts gain from both systems and the entire society. Just like in marriage contracts, both these laws work towards ensuring that the parties involved in this contract are well protected against all forms of exploitation.

Both the civil system and the Islamic society have developed over the years to accommodate the people’s needs and demands. From history, Civil laws were formulated from discussions and debates held by scholars and were highly influenced by the Romans. For instance, the Justinian code’s doctrine defined models for contracts, wills, family law, and rules of certain procedures. However, the Italian civil code brought about germanic concepts aligned with different political alliances at the time. It is observed that the Swiss civil law was also modified under the influence of the versions of France and Germany.

Based on the Islamic system, Islamic laws are supreme because they emanate straight from Allah. The Quran dictates that these laws should remain forever and should never be altered at any time. However, after the colonization period, religious doctrines were overstepped in several Muslim nations. For instance, a couple of Muslim states also belong to international bodies like United Nations, where they are expected to abide by the rules and laws presented here. From this perspective, Islamic law is interpreted differently, and the countries that become members of the United Nations are no longer looked at as “land of war” but “land of treaty.” Because of this, in modern law books, the phrase “land of war” is replaced with “land of disbelief.” Generally, although the actual words of the written down laws are not altered in both legal systems, how they are interpreted has changed over the years to fit in the needs and demands of the people they serve.

The final similarity is that both systems thrive in ensuring that justice is easily accessible. It further tries to ensure that individuals have mutual respect and no one engages in activities that may harm other members of society. Civil laws operate on the grounds that individuals have a clear understanding of their rights and duties. In line with that, they are also made aware of the remedies for their wrongdoings. The principles of accessibility and simplicity apply across all the civil laws and the system as a whole. Further, the civil system is also based on the principle of total disclosure allowing all the subjects involved to be aware of the set rules. It provides a detailed set of rules that are interpreted and applied by the judge. The system is constantly updated based on the enactments presented by the legislature (Czepita. 2021). The compiled codified laws outline all the possible disputes and offenses that can be presented before the court, procedures to be followed, and the appropriate punishments for the various offenses.

Like the civil system, the Islamic system also describes what is classified as an offense and how it should be punished. By doing this, it describes the set of issues that can be presented before the court. The Islamic laws are based on several principles not limited to protecting life, education, human dignity, and property protection. The Quran only outlines its general expectations from human conduct. However, the kinds of Mohammad and the caliphs help with elaborating the Quranic laws while expounding on the codified law. This is another similarity that observes that judges in the Islamic system, just like in the civil system, are not supposed to create their own laws (lev & Holt, 2019). They are only expected to interpret these laws better for the people to understand.

Conclusion

Despite the many differences that exist, the civil system and the Islamic system also possess a few similarities. They both base their arguments according to the interactions between people and god. On top of that, they both have authority over commercial contracts as well as marriage agreements. Finally, both of these systems are observed to have evolved and are flexible to fit into current ideologies to meet the needs and demands of the populations they serve.

References

Ahmed, E. R., Islam, M. A., Alabdullah, T. T. Y., & Amran, A. B. (2019). A qualitative analysis on the determinants of legitimacy of sukuk. Journal of Islamic Accounting and Business Research. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/333394387_A_qualitative_analysis_on_the_determinants_of_legitimacy_of_sukuk_A

Czepita, S. (2021). Polish Legislative Procedure and the Role of the Polish Constitutional Tribunal from the Perspective of the Theory of Conventional Acts and Formal Acts in Law. In Poznań School of Legal Theory (pp. 231-248). Brill Rodopi.

Gorski, P. (2019). American covenant: A history of civil religion from the puritans to the present. Princeton University Press. https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691147673/american-covenant

Lev, D. S., & Holt, C. (2019). Judicial institutions and legal culture in Indonesia (pp. 246-318). Cornell University Press. https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/cornell-open/culture-cultural-studies/

Sheehan, M. M. (2019). Marriage, family, and law in Medieval Europe. In Marriage, Family, and Law in Medieval Europe. University of Toronto Press.

To get your original copy of this completed paper, please Order Now