Blood, Land, and Sex

Legal and Political Pluralism in Eritrea

Bibliographic Data

ID3911871
AuthorsAsma Abdel Halim, Lyda Favali, Roy Pateman
Year2004
Volume37
Issue2
Pages363
Publication date2004-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe International Journal of African Historical Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0361-7882 • E-ISSN: 2326-3016
PublisherJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/4129021
OpenAlexW1585578226
LanguageEN
Citations received9

Blood, Land, and Sex: Legal and Political Pluralism in Eritrea. By Lyda Favali and Roy Pateman. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2003. Pp. xvi, 352. $54.95 cloth, $24.95 paper. This is the best book I have read this year. Not only is it a well organized presentation of Eritrea's plural system, it also opens doors for intriguing comparative studies in the Horn of Africa, which has had a plural system throughout its recent history. The experiences of the countries of the Horn have been studied within the individual countries as is the case of this book, but studies are rare and if found they are mostly done by anthropologists. Comparing similar systems in the region will make possible the needed interaction and use of other experiences such as that of the Sudan. The book is written and organized in such a way that it is accessible to both scholars and students. Favali and Pateman provide valuable material on Eritrea, which is perhaps the least studied country in the Horn of Africa. In addition to the history and copious empirical facts about the country, the authors combine their scholarly abilities to navigate the annals of the plural system. Indigenous law, colonial legacy, and legislated modern laws are the components of that system. The actors producing these laws are identified as state, ethnic groups (producing traditional law), religious groups and the international/ transnational community. The book's preface gives an overview of the rare primary sources that the authors researched and translated from Italian, English, and local languages. Comparative law techniques and theories such as legal and transplant are used to analyze the interaction and overlapping of the various actors and norms in the Eritrean system. Indigenous norms or customs have survived transplants of colonial laws and Shari'a; and continue to be an important part of the system of Eritrea. The formant approach, which comprises all aspects of a state's system, allowed a clear contextualization of the history and the culture of the law and the interaction (or lack thereof) of the various systems and actors. The authors are also able to articulate the serious challenges to a modern system in that country. Chief among the obstacles is the weak judiciary that comprises a good number of individuals who have had minimum training or no training at all. While colonial systems were transplanted to serve the colonizer's needs, another system of law, namely the Shari'a, replaced other customary systems through the conversion of certain groups to Islam. Therefore as an imported' system the Shari'a did not just affect the local systems, as it affected trust law in England, for example; it uprooted a previous system. I realize that a discussion of how religious norms can revolutionize law within a short time is outside the scope of this book. The authors choose certain areas where the components of the plural system act at the same time and sometimes collide with, and often paralyze, the state. The main areas they have chosen are: land, murder and bodily injury, female circumcision, and gender relations. Land disputes are where the hierarchy of actors appears. Local arbitration and mediation is the norm for individual disputes; however, state courts will take over when arbitration or mediation fails. The book covers all types of land disputes, including Eritrean disputes with its neighbors regarding borders and offshore islands

Comparative law · Epistemology · Geography · Legal pluralism · Legal realism · Political science · Politics · African history and culture analysis · Land Rights and Reforms · Law · Philosophy

Tools

Open DOISci-Hub