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...

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...

the judicial practice of the international courts and tribunals – especiallyinternational court of justice – as the most important official entities forsurveying and identifying legal rules, has always been a valuable source inthe recognition of customary international law. in the recent decades, as aresult of developments caused by improving human concepts and humanityprinciples in the interna...