Historians, lawyers, social scientists and policy-makers will read it with profit. Identifying the disconnection between literature on colonial legal systems and their post-colonial reform projects, this book analyzes why reform routinely fails. It will be of interest to scholars of South Asia, alongside professionals, students and general readers intrigued by the persistence of socially alienating legal systems in developing countries. See all Editorial Reviews. Product details File Size: Up to 4 simultaneous devices, per publisher limits Publisher: June 13, Sold by: Share your thoughts with other customers.
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There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later. This book is without a doubt the definitive history of Pakistani law. It articulates beautifully the daily struggles and frustrations of trial lawyers and judges, and the at times misguided international reform efforts to try to bring some harmony to the process. Beginning with insights into Pakistan's colonial heritage, Professor Siddique takes the evolution of Pakistani law to modern times, ending with vivid descriptions of the daily workings of the court system and the disjointed efforts towards reform undertaken by USAID and other Western agencies.
Major pieces of colonial legislation were enacted immediately after the Mutiny or the Great Rebellion, as the British described it but what was the War of Independence for the Indians. These laws were designed to strengthen state control, maintain law and order, and avoid another such uprising. The evolution of the British common law system was thus linked in the public perception to the colonial efforts - continued by subsequent military governments - to maintain control and power. As a result, much of the population, especially those in the villages, perceive the state and its laws to be of 'alien' origin, to be abided by only to the extent that the coercive power of the state compels such obedience.
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There is a Punjabi saying, roughly translated, that states "May God save even my worst enemy from disease and a court case. There are more than a million cases pending in the district, sessions, and magistrate courts. Sixty to eighty percent of the courts' civil caseloads are land acquisition and titling disputes, with a large percentage arising out of the gross misappropriation of property through the use of forged documents and violence - known as "land grabbing.
In order to ensure an acquittal of a client in a criminal case, it is quite simple for defense counsel to delay the case until the evidence is lost or the witnesses become unavailable. The judges acquiesce, and it is thereby the lawyers who effectively have control of the courts' calendars. With no Speedy Trial law in effect, nor any disposition mechanisms such as plea bargaining, criminal trials can take years to complete.
Civil cases can take decades. Quoting a litigant in a Punjab district court: A Punjabi district judge succinctly outlines the problem: Professor Siddique's critiques of USAID and its "regurgitated template" approach towards legal reform are lyrically biting and quite insightful, i.
Professor Siddique is a realist, and does not spare his criticisms of everyone associated with the court process. But he still is able to see things on an optimistic note. Both domestic and international current reform efforts are geared towards a few select areas where change is promising, such as better case management; court directions to ADR; clearer mapping, recognition and suitable employment of informal mechanisms; effective pre-trial disclosures; and suitable procedural and bar regulation reforms to more effectively reduce the interminable adjournments.
Needless to say, this price will scare away most interested readers.
I confess I got my copy out of the library. But no matter how you obtain your copy, if you have any interest in the subject, you will not be able to put it down. Amazon Giveaway allows you to run promotional giveaways in order to create buzz, reward your audience, and attract new followers and customers. Learn more about Amazon Giveaway. Set up a giveaway. There's a problem loading this menu right now.
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Learn more about Amazon Prime. This pioneering book highlights vital and widely neglected linkages between the 'narratives of colonial displacement' resonant in the literature on South Asia's encounter with colonial law and the region's post-colonial official law reform discourses. Against this backdrop, it presents a typology of Pakistani approaches to law reform and critically evaluates the IFI funded single-minded pursuit of 'efficiency' during the last decade.
Employing diverse methodologies it proceeds to provide empirical support for a widening chasm between popular, at times violently expressed, aspirations for justice and democratically deficient reform designed in distant IFI headquarters that is entrusted to the exclusive and unaccountable Pakistani 'reform club. Siddique analyzes the limits of scholarly reflection and well intentioned reform by placing them alongside the perceptions, strategies and experiences of those who use the system.
Pakistan's Experience with Formal Law: An Alien Justice
A powerful and broad-ranging cautionary tale. The history is a crisp summary, followed by a fascinating first person participant observer report of how rule of law projects actually operate, and a pioneering empirical study of litigation on the ground in a provincial court. In some senses, he was even then on track toward this new book. His exceptional qualities and talents that showed in that earlier period — probity, tenacity in his research and discipline in his writing, a probing intelligence, fresh analysis, endowing his project with imaginative scope and purpose — have only become the more striking.
The present work is not easy for the reader to grasp. It demands effort to digest deep description and evaluation.
Pakistan's Experience with Formal Law: An Alien Justice by Osama Siddique
And it rewards that effort. The major themes that Osama develops and methods that he employs set the book apart from most legal scholarship. Political and other historical context informs the description of legal doctrine and its evolution during the period discussed. Discussion ranges from the theoretical framework to descriptions derived from empirical methods of the ordinary lives and experiences of those subject to that system. Steiner Jeremiah Smith, Jr. It departs decisively from all the official and approved pronouncements on legal reform, combining a rich experiential account of the frustrations of law in Pakistan and throughout South Asia with a provocative analysis of impoverished agendas of reform that fail to address the perplexities of the post-colonial legal situation.
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This book makes a compelling argument that history matters and the perceptions of ordinary citizens are relevant in crafting a meaningful course towards legal reform. Historians, lawyers, social scientists and policy-makers will read it with profit. Hardcover , pages. To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. To ask other readers questions about Pakistan's Experience with Formal Law , please sign up.
Editorial Reviews
Be the first to ask a question about Pakistan's Experience with Formal Law. Lists with This Book. This book is not yet featured on Listopia. Aizaz Ahsan rated it really liked it Jun 01, Asad rated it liked it Feb 27, Hassan Niazi rated it liked it Nov 14, Abdul rated it liked it Feb 07, Usman Ahmad rated it really liked it Feb 21, Hatim Siddique rated it it was amazing Apr 02, Waqqas Mir rated it really liked it Nov 18, Farrukh Khan rated it really liked it Dec 15, Inayat Ali marked it as to-read Jan 02, Anas Makhdoom is currently reading it Dec 12,