The Javanese Way of Law


Book Description

Traditional Javanese law of the pre- and early-colonial period does not draw upon the contents of recognized texts, but -- as preserved and often explained in those texts -- on maxims (sloka/saloka) containing the essence of law expressed in pithy, easily remembered phrases, many of which live on as modern Javanese proverbs.




Asian Comparative Constitutional Law, Volume 2


Book Description

This is the second in a 4-volume set that provides the definitive account of the major issues of comparative constitutional law in Asian jurisdictions. Volume 2 looks at constitutional amendments and offers answers to questions about the formal rules for amending the constitution such as: - Who initiates an amendment proposal? - How is the amendment proposal adopted? - How are the amendments codified? and the neo-institutional questions regarding amendment practices such as: - Why is the constitution amended? - Who engages in the amendment process? - How does the amendment affect the political system and the society? Volume 2 covers 17 Asian jurisdictions including: Bangladesh, Cambodia, mainland China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, North Korea, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan and Thailand.




Islamic Law in the Indian Ocean World


Book Description

This book explores the ways in which Muslim communities across the Indian Ocean world produced and shaped Islamic law and its texts, ideas and practices in their local, regional, imperial, national and transregional contexts. With a focus on the production and transmission of Islamic law in the Indian Ocean, the chapters in this book draw from and add to recent discourses on the legal histories and anthropologies of the Indian Ocean rim as well as to the conversations on global Islamic circulations. By doing so, this book argues for the importance of Islamic legal thoughts and practices of the so-called "peripheries" to the core and kernel of Islamic traditions and the urgency of addressing their long-existing role in the making of the historical and human experience of the religion. Islamic law was and is not merely brought to, but also produced in the Indian Ocean world through constant and critical engagements. The book takes a long-term and transregional perspective for a better understanding of the ways in which the oceanic Muslims have historically developed their religious, juridical and intellectual traditions and continue to shape their lives within the frameworks of their religion. Transregional and transdisciplinary in its approach, this book will be of interest to scholars of Islamic Studies, Indian Ocean Studies, Legal History and Legal Anthropology, Area Studies of South and Southeast Asia and East Africa.




Candi, Space and Landscape


Book Description

Central Javanese temples were not built anywhere and anyhow. On the contrary: their positions within the landscape and their architectural designs were determined by socio-cultural, religious and economic factors. This book explores the correlations between temple distribution, natural surroundings and architectural design to understand how Central Javanese people structured the space around them, and how the religious landscape thus created, developed. Besides questions related to territory and landscape, Degroot's book analyzes the structure of the built space and its possible relations with conceptualized space, showing the influence of imported Indian concepts, as well as their limits. Going off the beaten track, this book explores the hundreds of small sites that scatter the landscape of Central Java. It is also one of very few studies to apply the methods of spatial archaeology to Central Javanese temples and the first in almost a century to present a descriptive inventory of the remains of this region.




Understanding Corruption


Book Description

This volume together scholars specializing in different parts of the world to give us a comparative understanding of the persistence of corruption in some societies. The reader is privileged to learn from the many global variations that are skilfully presented for further analyses. Corruption is a salient feature of human condition in any organized society. Further, where risks are low and the returns high, corruption is almost inevitable. Apart from this, traditional public behaviour comes precariously close to what in the West might amount to corrupt practices. Bureaucratic corruption should be understood in the light of a clash of morality on the one hand and legality on the other. There is a contradiction between traditional values, which are held in respect and are a part of everyday life of a people, and norms of the larger society which stand out as compelling forces. The idea of the modern division between the public and private office is alien to a traditional culture and corruption finds space when this division is not strictly observed. Seven essays in this volume cover a range of countries which include India, South Africa, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, and Indonesia. As the essays unfold themselves, the problem of corruption takes on an added dimension, that of a legacy left behind by colonialism. Please note: This title is co-published with Social Science Press, New Delhi. Taylor & Francis does not sell or distribute the Hardback in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.




Islamic Law in Circulation


Book Description

Circulation networks -- Circulatory texts -- Architecture of encounters -- The Code -- The commentary -- The autocommentary -- The supercommentar -- The translations.




Introduction to Old Javanese Language and Literature


Book Description

The oldest and most extensive written language of Southeast Asia is Old Javanese, or Kawi. It is the oldest language in terms of written records, and the most extensive in the number and variety of its texts. Javanese literature has taken many forms. At various times, prose stories, sung poetry or other metrical types, chronicles, scientific, legal, and philosophical treatises, prayers, chants, songs, and folklore were all written down. Yet relatively few texts are available in English. The unstudied texts remaining are an unexplored record of Javanese culture as well as a language still alive as a literary medium in Bali. Introduction to Old Javanese Language and Literature represents a first step toward remedying the dearth of Old Javanese texts available to English-speaking students. The ideal teaching companion, this anthology offers transliterated original texts with facing-page English translations. Theanthology focuses on prose selections, since their straightforward style and syntax offer the beginning student the most rewarding experience. Four sections make up the collection. Part I offers several short readings as the most accessible entry point into Old Javanese. Part II contains two moralistic fables from an Old Javanese retelling of the Hindu Pañcatantra cycle. Part III takes up the epic, providing excerpts from one of the books of the Old Javanese retelling of the Mahābhārata. Part IV offers excerpts from two chronicles, the generic conventions of which challenge received notions of history writing because of their supernaturalism and folkloric elements. Includes introduction, glossary, and notes.




Sharī'a


Book Description

In recent years, Islamic law, or Shari'a, has been appropriated as a tool of modernity in the Muslim world and in the West and has become highly politicised in consequence. Wael Hallaq's magisterial overview of Shari'a sets the record straight by examining the doctrines and practices of Islamic law within the context of its history, and by showing how it functioned within pre-modern Islamic societies as a moral imperative. In so doing, Hallaq takes the reader on an epic journey tracing the history of Islamic law from its beginnings in seventh-century Arabia, through its development and transformation under the Ottomans, and across lands as diverse as India, Africa and South-East Asia, to the present. In a remarkably fluent narrative, the author unravels the complexities of his subject to reveal a love and deep knowledge of the law which will inform, engage and challenge the reader.




Selective Judicial Competence


Book Description

A major contribution to the understanding of Indonesian legal history. Hoadley shows how European colonialism skewed local legal institutions to serve colonial ends, and he discusses a fascinating series of cases that illustrate the evolution of this process.




The Religion of Java


Book Description

Part of the material issued in 1958 under title: Modjokuto, religion in Java. Includes index.