I recently prepared slides for a lecture on the formal and informal dispute resolution systems in Afghanistan. Although it is in PowerPoint format, I cited sources. I cited sources because I want to offer the slides to any attendee who is interested. If any of them view the presentation on their own time, I want them to know where I got the information from, so that they can judge for themselves whether, or to what degree, they accept my reasoning and conclusions. I don't think that any of the attendees have access to academic databases, so I sought out other sources that are freely available online. For some issues, I was not able to find free sources. But, for most issues, I was able to.
Updated: new terms for my contract, so I took down the full presentation until I read through it, to ensure that I still own it.
This is a print-friendly version of the presentation: Dispute Resolution in Afghanistan (print-friendly)
This is a summary of works cited:
Irshad Abdel-Haqq, Islamic Law: An Overview of Its Origin and Elements, 1 J. Islamic L. 1 (1996).
Afg. Legal. Educ. Prog., Stan. L. Sch., An Introduction to the Law of Afghanistan (3rd ed., 2011), available at alep.stanford.edu.
Abu Umar Faruq Ahmad, Theory and Practice of Modern Islamic Finance: The Case Analysis from Australia (Brown Walker 2010), available at books.google.com.
Rahmat Alizada, Reign of the desert court, Afghanistan Today, Nov. 8, 2011, available at afghanistan-today.org.
Tarek Badawy, Towards a Contemporary View of Islamic Criminal Procedures: A Focus on the Testimony of Witnesses, 23 Arab. L.Q. 269 (2009).
T. Barfield, Afghanistan: The Local and the Global in the Practice of Shari'a, in Shari'a Politics: Islamic Law and Society in the Modern World (Robert W. Hefner, ed. 2011) available at books.google.com.
Thomas Barfield, On Local Justice and Culture in Post-Taliban Afghanistan, 60 Conn. J. of Int’l L. 437 (2002).
M. Cherif Bassiouni & Daniel Rothenberg, An Assessment of Justice Sector and Rule of Law Reform in Afghanistan and the Need for a Comprehensive Plan (2007) (unpublished manuscript available at law.depaul.edu).
M. Cherif Bassiouni, Crimes and the Criminal Process, 12 Arab L.Q. 269 (1997).
Frud Bezhan, Karzai Backs Afghan Clerics Over Stronger Restrictions on Women, RFE/RL, available at rferl.org.
Stephen Carter and Kate Clark, No Shortcut to Stability: Justice, Politics and Insurgency in Afghanistan (Chatham House, Dec. 2010), available at chathamhouse.org.
Checchi and Co. Consulting, Inc., Field Study of Informal and Customary Justice in Afghanistan (2005), available at usip.org.
Kate Clark, The Layha: Calling the Taleban to Account, (Afghanistan Analysts Network, July 2011), available at aan-afghanistan.com.
Kate Clark, Calling the Taliban to Account, Foreign Policy, Jul. 6, 2011, available at afpak.foreignpolicy.com.
Noah Coburn, The Politics of Dispute Resolution and Continued Instability in Afghanistan United States Institute of Peace, August 2011, available at usip.org.
Lawrence Devlin, Jacob Rinck, Christian Dennys and Idrees Zaman, Conflict analysis: Kunduz city, Kunduz Province (CPAU 2009), available at ochaonline.un.org.
Mūʼil Yūsuf ʻIzz al-Dīn, Islamic Law: From Historical Foundations to Contemporary Practice (Edinburgh University 2004), available at books.google.com.
Bruce Etling, Legal Authorities in the Afghan Legal System (1964-1979), Harv. L. School: Islamic Legal Studies Program (2003), available at harvard.edu.
Ben Farmer, Life under the Taliban: how a boy of seven was hanged to punish his family, The Telegraph, Jun. 12, 2010, available at telegraph.co.uk.
Wazhma Frogh, Afghanistan’s politics should be local, Foreign Policy, Jul. 14, 2010, available at afpak.foreignpolicy.com.
Ghanizada, Afghan judges arrested and tried for corruption charges, Khaama Press, Feb. 29, 2012, available at khaama.com.
Antonio Giustozzi and Christoph Reuter, The Insurgents of the Afghan North (Afghanistan Analysts Network 2011), available at aan-afghanistan.com.
Robert Gleave, Inevitable doubt: two theories of Shīʻī jurisprudence (Brill 2000), available at books.google.com.
Louise Hancock & Orzala Ashraf Nemat, A Place at the Table: Safeguarding Womens Rights in Afghanistan, Oxfam Briefing Paper 14 (Oxfam 2011), available at oxfam.org.
Wael B. Hallaq, An Introduction to Islamic Law (Cambridge University 2009), available at books.google.com.
Farooq A. Hassan, The Sources of Islamic Law, 76 Am. Soc’y Int’l L. 65 (1982).
International Crisis Group, Reforming Afghanistan’s Broken Judiciary, Asia Report No. 195, Nov. 17, 2010, available at crisisgroup.org.
International Legal Foundation, The Customary Laws of Afghanistan (2004), available at usip.org.
Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, Const., 2004, available at iec.org.af.
Palwasha Kakar, Tribal Law of Pashtunwali and Women’s Legislative Authority, (Harv. L. Sch., 2003), available at law.harvard.edu.
Mohammad Hashim Kamali, Principles of Islamic Jurisprudence (Islamic Society Texts 2003).
Khizr Muazzam Khan, Juristic Classification of Islamic Law, 6 Hous. J. Int'l L. 23 (1983-1984).
David Kilcullen, The Accidental Guerrilla (Oxford 2009).
Frank Ledwidge, Justice and Counterinsurgency in Afghanistan, 154 RUSI J. 6 (2009), available at usacac.army.mil.
Jean MacKenzie, Afghan Women Trapped in Tribal Court System, Global Post, available at globalpost.com.
Sean M. Maloney, Taliban Governance: Can Canada Compete?, Policy Options (Jun 2009), available at irpp.org.
Ramin Moschtaghi, Organisation and Jurisdiction of the Newly Established Afghan Courts - The Compliance of the Formal System of Justice with the Bonn Agreement, 10 Max Planck Yearbook of U.N.L. 531 (2006), available at mpil.de.
Butti Sultan Butti Ali Al-Muhairi, The Incompatibility of the Penal Code with Shari’a, 12 Arab L.Q. 307 (1997).
Muhammad Munir, The Layha for the Mujahideen: an analysis of the code of conduct for the Taliban fighters under Islamic law, 93 Int’l Rev. of the Red Cross 81 (Mar. 2011), available at icrc.org.
Dan Murphy, Dent in Afghanistan war strategy: Why Kandahar locals turn to Taliban, Christian Science Monitor, Jul. 6, 2010, available at csmonitor.com.
Charles Norchi, Toward the Rule of Law in Afghanistan: The Constitutive Process, in Beyond Reconstruction in Afghanistan (Montgomery & Rondinelli eds., 2004), available at books.google.com.
Bruce Oswald, Dealing with disputes in Afghanistan: principles and rules for the tactical level, 23 Small Wars & Insurgencies 174 (2012).
Tom A. Peter, One More Hurdle in Afghanistan: Justice, USA Today, Mar. 6, 2012, available at usatoday.com.
Tom Peters, What may be a bigger threat to Afghanistan than Insurgency: Land disputes, Christian Science Monitor, Aug. 11, 2011, available at csmonitor.com.
Keith B. Richburg, As Taliban makes comeback in Kunduz province, war spreads to northern Afghanistan, Washington Post, Mar. 19, 2010, available at washingtonpost.com.
Tilmann Röder, Human Rights Standards in Afghan Courtrooms - The Theory and Reality of a Right to a Fair Trial, in Islam and Human Rights (Elliesie ed., 2010), available at mpil.de.
Susanne Schmeidl and Masood Karokhail, The Role of Non-State Actors in ‘Community-Based Policing’ - An Exploration of the Arbakai (Tribal Police) in South-Eastern Afghanistan, 30 Contemporary Security Pol’y 318 (2009), available at tlo-afghanistan.org.
Abdul Qadir Siddique, Informal justice system to have legal cover, Pajhwok, Oct. 25, 2010, available at pajhwok.com.
Sylvana Q. Sinha, Traditional Dispute Resolution and Afghanistan’s Women, USIP Peace Brief 117, Dec. 21, 2011, available at usip.org.
Mohammed Osman Tariq, Tribal Security System (Arbakai) in Southeast Afghanistan, Crisis States Research Centre Occasional Paper no. 7 (2008), available at lse.ac.uk.
Yama Torabi, Afghan Perceptions and Experiences of Corruption: A National Survey 2010, (Integrity Watch Afghanistan 2010), available at iwaweb.org.
Knut S. Vikør, Between God and the Sultan (Oxford 2005), available at books.google.com.
Ali Wardak, State and Non-State Justice Systems in Afghanistan: The Need for Synergy, 32 U. Pa. J. Int’l L. 1305 (2011), available at law.upenn.edu.
Mir Sediq Zaliq, Justice in limbo, Afghanistan Today, Aug. 8, 2011, available at afghanistan-today.org.