Justice in Practice: Legal Ethnography of a Pakistani Punjabi
Village/Muhammad Azam Chaudhary. New Delhi, Oxford University Press, 1999, ix,
248 p., ISBN 0-19-579063-4.
Justice in Practice: Legal Ethnography of a Pakistani Punjabi
Village/Muhammad Azam Chaudhary. New Delhi, Oxford University Press, 1999, ix,
248 p., ISBN 0-19-579063-4.
Contents: 1. Introduction. 2. Zan, Zar, Zamin: types of conflicts. 3. The traditional justice system. 4. The official justice system. 5. Conclusion. Glossary. Bibliography. Index.
"This study discusses the highly debated issue of suitability of the official versus the traditional system of justice for Pakistani society. The focus is on the minute ethnographic details of the functioning of different institutions of traditional as well as official systems of justice in a Punjabi village in Pakistan. The author has discussed various reasons for and types of conflicts that are of common occurrence in villages. Detailed case studies provide first hand information about the village situation, increasing conflicts, and the combination of the two types of judicial institutions made by villagers. The study also tries to work out the relation between the type of conflict, the village social organization, and the institution of justice a villager tries to contact. The problems arising out of a system of justice where there is a multiplicity of legal institutions has also been touched upon in this book, and proposals have been made to solve them." (jacket)