The truth, in legal terms, is the version of ""what happened"" which carries most authority. This original and thought-provoking book looks at how this narrative is constructed in Muslim societies, and which truths are privileged over others in constructing it. Looking at a range of contrasting case studies, from Sharia courts to inquiries into police abuse, this book explores how ordinary stories are transformed into authoritative truths.

This work focuses on the relationship between the law and the concept of the person in modern Arab societies. It directly addresses the questions of continuities, transformations and ruptures of such notions. Law performs a central function in revealing social and historical dynamics and in being itself a tool of its implementation. The introduction of Western-style legal systems partially led to a transposition of characteristics of centrality, individualism and secularism. Standing Trial is the first truly interdisciplinary study of its subject, combining legal, historical and...

The studies in this volume use ethnographic, ethnomethodological, and sociolinguistic research to demonstrate how legal agents conduct their practices and exercise their authority in relation to non-expert participants and broader publics. Instead of treating law as a body of doctrines, or law and society as a relationship between legal institutions and an external society, the studies in this volume closely examine law at work: specific legal practices and social interactions produced in national and international settings. These settings include courtrooms and other tribunals, consultations...

An indispensable introduction to the evolution and implementation of Sharia law within the Muslim world.