Concurrent Customary Laws

Abstract

This chapter is about customary laws which exist parallel to other systems of law, be it a religious law, a state law or both. Focus is on Pashtunwali, the archaic, patriarchal and martial moral code of Pashtun tribes of Afghanistan and Pakistan, the adat-laws of Southeast Asia in Indonesia and Malaysia, and some tribal customary laws in East-India. Some of them are concurrent to Islamic law: Pashtunwali modifies it only to some extent while Malay matriarchal customary law changes it in its fundaments. By contrast, tribal laws of East India have state law as their rival which however, protects them by the modern constitutional system thus guaranteeing legal pluralism. The chapter focuses in addition to some important institutions of family law and criminal law also on the underlying principles and values of customary laws under scrutiny here.