On medieval (The 14th to 15th centuries) Maghreb countries’ court

Abstract

The Maghreb countries occupy a special place in theoretical and legal courses. Their legal procedures and institutions were influenced by various factors. Currently, North African legal systems are a combination of French positive law, local customs and Islamic law. However, the process of the formation of the legal institutions of the Maghreb took a long time; it was influenced by both subjective political factors and the customary law of the Berber tribes. The purpose of this study is to establish the legal status of judges in litigation in the medieval Maghreb. The main source for studying the judicial process of the medieval Maghreb are the texts of fatwas compiled by educated jurists of the 14th – 15th centuries. Therefore, when studying the problem, the authors of the article used the method of analysing the legal text in combination with the principle of historicism. The main result of the study was the conclusion that the powers, including judicial, of the qadi in regions remote from the centre of the state were replaced by the powers of other officials, often acting on the basis of Berber customary law. When there was a conflict between the norms of Islamic law and local customs, the court more often made a decision based on the norms of customary law.