*** JEANNE LADJILI-MOUCHETTE: Histoire juridique de la Méditerranée. Droit Romain - Droit Musulman. Editions Publisud (15 rue des Cinq-Diamants, F-75013 Paris. Tel: (33-1) 45807850 - Fax: 45899415 - e-mail: publisud.editions@cegetel.net - Internet: http://www.editionspublisud.hautefort.com ). "Systèmes juridiques de la Méditerranée" series. 2007, 836 pp, €86. ISBN 978-2-86600-829-1.
The Mediterranean was known as 'Mare Nostrum' (Our Sea) by the Romans. As Nicolas Sarkozy is mooting the idea of a Mediterranean Union, this book is about as up-to-the-minute as you can get, despite the fact it covers centuries of history that are now firmly in the past. But is this truly a thing of the past? The author's basic idea is to back to the roots of the Mediterranean to demonstrate that through their lawyers, through Roman law which fed into European legal systems, and Muslim law which is the basis or reference for legal systems in Muslim countries, that the Roman civitas and Muslim civitas were fundamental aspects of a common legal history of the Mediterranean region. And despite appearances, this remains to this day! This comparative historical essay is based on the teaching experience of a legal historian at the Law Faculty in Tunis (Tunisia) who has marshalled course notes constituting the framework, or rather the raw material wisely selected from academic debates and explanations, which sometimes makes the book rather hard-going or at least slightly chaotic. The book is not neutral. The author's main aim, warns Prof. Pierangelo Catalano, is to combat the covering up of the idea of Mediterranean unity with students. In the preface to the second edition (enriched with new research), the holder of the first Chair of Roman Law at La Sapienza University in Rome points out that the discussions between lawyers from the Roman and Muslim legal systems should lead to the reconstitution of a universal Mediterranean identity. Which means that this detour is surely justified for contemporary eulogists of a Mediterranean Union - as long as they intend it to respect everything that has been contributed and handed down to us by history - by all of history.
Jeanne Ladjili-Mouchette argues that the Mediterranean was the place where two legal constructions mixed and matched, namely Roman Law on the one hand, engendered by a Roman and Christian civilisation arising out of Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome and Christianity arising from Judaism, later collected and experienced with different nuances by the Germanic and Slavic peoples who formed the Europe we know today; and on the other hand Muslim Law, engendered by an Arab-Muslim civilisation which itself has a rich ancient heritage. Rather than looking at both systems separately, the author approaches them from the same angle by placing them against the backdrop of the history of the Mediterranean, the place where they developed and met in the past, of course, but also today, as can be seen by anyone who dares to remove their blinkers. In both systems, people gave law a pre-eminent position, their differences and originality residing in the extent to which religion was incorporated. In one, the source of law was autonomous human thought, whereas Muslim law did not aim to be autonomous from divine will. The author demonstrates that the two legal systems gave form to the permanent lawyers' temptations - that the legal order should be a reflection of divine creation and that the way human beings relate with one another should be impregnated with the idea of God's will - or, on the other hand, that the legal order should emerge from daily life and the autonomous aspirations of human beings. In order to locate points of divergence and also points of interference among the two types of response, the author returns to the sources of the two legal systems, to the spirit of the law, making an erudite study of documents. To give an idea of the sheer scale of the task, the introduction to the book is preceded by no less than forty-odd pages describing in brief the sources upon which the research is based. Sources of a strictly legal nature (fontes iuris romani antejustiniani - from Roman legal sources before Emperor Justinian to the legacy of jurisconsults), ranging from ancient literary texts written by Greeks, Romans, Jews and Christians (from Hesiodus in the eighth century BC to the patriarch of Constantinople, Photius, in the 9th century AD), Muslim legal sources (the Koran in the sense of the mushaf or written version of the Koran as a spoken message, the collections of traditional teachings preferred by the Sunnis, the fiqh and Hanefite, Malakite, Shafite, Hanbalite and Zaharite texts)… This historical material is used as a raw material for four 'dossiers' which make up the body of the book. The first looks at the outstanding moments in the history of the Mediterranean from the 9th century BC to the 9th century AD, the second and third centuries of Hezrah (after the flight of Prophet Mohammed), leading readers into a whirlwind of history of priceless value for study, from Phoenician Tyre that formed the basis of Carthage under the Berbers to Punic Carthage, the creation of Athens and the expansion of the Greek Empire at the end of the fourth century AD, to the birth of Rome and its permanent position at the head of the Greco-Roman tradition, with Constantinople then appearing as the Second Rome and then the New Rome, following on to the arrival of 'new partners' in the fifth to ninth centuries AD with the advent of the Germanic Christian post-Gaul civilisation and, shortly afterwards, the birth of the Arab-Muslim civilisation. The author concludes that the Greco-Roman civilisation then became heritage and civilisation that would be passed down the generations, enriched with the contributions of new arrivals, without challenging the idea of a single, united, civilisation.
In the same spirit, the author undertakes in the second dossier in a descriptive and thematic way to provide sufficient religious background to be able to understand the way law has changed in the Mediterranean region. The third and fourth dossiers are analytical and constitute, strictly speaking, the legal history of the Mediterranean. One looks at the sources of the two legal systems and the other at the legal stakeholders in the civitas under discussion. This goes to make up an impressive volume which reveals that the survival of Roman Law in the Arab-Muslim area was a realty, just as much a reality as the homogeneity of Muslim law. Hence, at the present time, as some people talk about a Mediterranean Union, this fundamental question is asked at the end of the preface by Mohamed Talbi, Professor of History at Tunis University: Can the current tension that can be discerned around Muslim law in deadlock pave the way for a new harmonisation that would reconcile Tradition with Modernity? Everyone would join forces with Prof. Talbi in recognising that the question has been raised and the direction the Arab-Muslim world will take is contingent upon the answer…
Michel Theys
*** NILS ANDERSSON, DANIEL IAGOLNITZER, VINCENT RIVASSEAU (Eds.): Justice internationale et impunité, le cas des Etats-Unis. Editions L'Harmattan (5-7 rue de l'Ecole polytechnique, F-75005 Paris. Tel: (33-1) 40467920 - Fax: 43258203 - E-mail: diffusion.harmattan@wanadoo.fr - Internet: http://www.editions-harmattan.fr ). "Questions contemporaines" series, 2007, 303 pp. ISBN 978-2-296-02924-8.
Never before in history has there been such a murderous epoch. Wars are springing up around the globe that involve big powers as much as poor countries, with the pernicious characteristic of mainly impacting on civilians, as can been seen by the hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing Darfur in Sudan or Iraq. At the same time, like in business, there is a strong desire to deregulate and abandon the principles to which countries were subject from the end of the 19th century onwards in terms of international humanitarian law. While it is true that the perpetrators of war crimes and genocide can be taken to court these days, many commentators regret the way many leaders of world powers benefit from total impunity, and the case of the United States stands out in this regard. This provided the motivation for the organisation in September 2005 of an international conference by the 'Association pour la défense du droit international,' the proceedings of which are published in this book. It is divided into three parts. After an explanatory section on international law and the current situation, the authors look at recent history, drawing up a critical balance sheet of the United States' policy and its impact. The second part considers problems of law and legal and moral values to be defended. The third part sets out various ways of ensuring respect of humanitarian law.
(NDu)
*** JUAN OÑATE (Ed.): International Duties of the EU. Journalistic Power and Responsibility. Asociación de Periodistas Europeos (11 Cedaceros, E-28014 Madrid. Tel: (34-91) 429 6869 - E-mail: info@apeuropeos.org - Internet: http://www.aej.org ). 2007, 149 pp.
This bilingual book, with a page in English facing the same page in Spanish on each double spread, follows the 44th international congress of the Association of European Journalists, which was set up in Brussels in 1963 'with the objective of becoming a forum for journalists that were convinced of the need for European integration based on a democratic process and were committed to the defence of freedom of the press as an absolute requirement to achieve that objective'. The congress of journalists and other players like Alberto Navarro, Spanish European Union minister, looked at the power and responsibility of both journalists and the EU as an international player.
(FRo)
*** SINISA KUSIC, CLAUDIA GRUPE (Eds.): The Western Balkans on their way to EU? Peter Lang (1 Moosstrasse, CH-2542 Pieterlen. Tel: (41-32) 3761717 - Fax: 3761727 - E-mail: info@peterlang.com - Internet: http://www.peterlang.de ). 2007, 157 pp, €27-90. ISBN 978-3-631-55896-6.
Emerging from the heavy burden of past conflicts, wars and complicated, difficult to follow political disintegration, the Balkans are now looking towards the European Union. But will the Balkans states be able to meet the EU accession criteria? Rather than first looking at the issue from all angles, which is virtually impossible given the "significant differences between the countries in this region", the book focuses on the economic situation. Each chapter looks at a totally different issue, making the book a collection of essays rather than a structured study. It covers issues like regional development in Albania, state structure in Bosnia, the brain drain, the economic situation in Kosovo, and inter-country cooperation in the Balkans. The experts have used concrete examples to illustrate the main trends, generalised to the whole of the region.
(TBa)
*** ALEXANDER WARKOTSCH: Die Zentralasienpolitik der Europäischen Union. Interesse, Strukturen und Reformoptionen. Peter Lang (see above). "Europäische Hochschulschriften - European University Studies - Publications Universitaires Européennes", No. 537. 2006, 254 pp, €42-50. ISBN 3-631-55778-7.
This political science thesis discusses an area which, unlike the situation in the United States, is not yet seen as central in the analysis of key issues in the European Union's foreign policy, namely Central Asia. For this reason, the book provides new perspectives, both in terms of methodology and content, setting out a series of options for reforming EU foreign policy in this connection. It is true that as far as European foreign policy is concerned, the region of Central Asia which concludes Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan tends to be a terra incognita. The author therefore tries to show not only what is happening in the region, but also the interests that the EU can develop there in terms of both economics and security, and the special role the EU could play in this part of the world. There is an interesting chapter on the involvement of other powers in the region, namely Russia, the United States, China, Turkey and Iran. The author points out that if Europe wants to play a role here, even if only that of a peaceful power, it will have to take account of all these elements. A book which will certainly be interesting reading due to the raft of questions it raises and its discussion of changes in the European Union as a world power.
(GFr)
*** ROLAND EISEN, ALBERTO M. DIAZ CAFFERATA, ÁNGEL ENRIQUE NEDER, MARIA LUISA RECALDE (Eds.): Trade, Integration and Institutional Reforms in Latin America and the EU. Peter Lang (see above). 2007, 316 pp, €48-10. ISBN 978-3-631-55348-0.
This book is the fruit of cooperation between the National University of Cordoba in Argentina and Frankfurt University in Germany, publishing the proceedings of the 6th Arnoldshain seminar, held in Argentina in 2005. The aim of the Arnoldshain seminars is to encourage comparative research into the impact of globalisation on economic integration in South America and Europe in order to provide economists and decision-makers in both continents with new instruments for establishing economic policy in the future. The first round table looked at education technologies and the rise of university education at a distance. The second round table discussed the economic and financial impact of the Basel II Agreements in developing countries, also assessing the impact of the agreements on bank loans in emerging markets. The authors also study progress in economic integration between MERCOSUR and the EU, and the capacity in both regions to boost integration through financial institutions in particular. The third round table looked at growth and international trade. Here it is South America which is in the spotlight, with the authors considering the reasons why economic growth has slowed in Argentina, the impact of MERCOSUR on Argentinean agriculture and the health of the Argentinean labour market. The fourth chapter looks at institutions and how they influence economic performance. There is also a discussion of the impact of pharmaceutical legislation to keep medicine prices artificially low, research into the polarisation of income and an analysis of teachers' pay in eight countries of Latin America. The last part casts an eye over the vast field of information technology and how it relates to the global economy, with articles on the development of e-government in several regions of the world, the introduction of new technology in financial institutions, and other issues. The technical nature of the book means that it is mainly aimed at researchers …
(NDu)