Case Law as an Authoritative Source of Customary Law: Piecemeal Recording of (Living) Customary Law?

The Formation of Customary Law

Islamic Law , Customary Law , and Afghan Informal Justice

This report is part of the United States Institute of Peace’s (USIP) ongoing effort to understand the pluralist legal system of Afghanistan. It examines, compares, and contrasts Islamic law with traditional forms of justice in an attempt to elucidate how such rule of law approaches interact as well as provide a fuller understanding of each system to better guide rule of law practice, policy, an...

The Emerging Customary Law of Space

The Political Economy of “Aboriginal Customary Law”

Discussions about aboriginal-non-aboriginal relations in Canada have stressed the need to recognize “aboriginal customary law” in self-government arrangements. It is maintained that many aspects of “native law” differ radically from the legal systems that emerged in European countries, and so imposing Canadian conceptions of law on aboriginal communities is an obstacle to native self-determinat...

An Evolutionary Contractarian View of Primitive Law: The Institutions and Incentives Arising Under Customary Indian Law

The European conquest and absorption of native American Indian groups obviously produced tremendous changes in the way Indians live and interact with one another. One very important source of change in Indian life was the changes in the rules and institutions of Indian law. Few Indian groups had any sort of strong central legal authority before Europeans began to exert various types of influenc...