Central Asian Law

Beyer, Judith. “Imagining the State in Rural Kyrgyzstan: How Perceptions of the State Create Customary Law in the Kyrgyz Aksakal Courts.” Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology Working Papers 95 (2007).

Sections: Introduction; Studying the State through its Local Imaginations; Imagining the State through Visiting State Officials, the Media and Memories; The Introduction of the Kyrgyz Aksakal Courts; “There is this Law …”: imagining the state in aksakal court sessions; Conclusion

Beyer, Judith. “Revitalisation, Invention and Continued Existence of the Kyrgyz Aksakal Courts: Listening to Pluralistic Accounts of History.” Journal of Legal Pluralism and Unofficial Law 53 (2006): 141.

Sections: Introduction, Official Discourses on the Historical Development of the aksakal Courts, Historical Data on the Development of the aksakal Courts, Local Discourses on the Historical Development of the Institution, Conclusion

Beyer, Judith. “According to Salt: An Ethnography of Customary Law in Talas, Kyrgyzstan.” Dissertation, Martin-Luther-Universitat, 2009.

Sections: Introduction; Salt as legal repertoire; Settling descent; Performing authority; Buying and paying respect; Imagining the state in the aksakal courts; Taking and giving carpets; Conclusion

Brusina, Olga. “The Russian Experience of Reforming Nomadic Courts According to Adat in Turkestan, 1850-1900.” Journal of Legal Pluralism and Unofficial Law 52 (2006): 31-40.

Sections: Codification, Reform, Results

Cormier, Kelley E. “Grievance Practices in Post-Soviet Kyrgyz Agriculture.” Law & Social Inquiry 32, no. 2 (2007): 435-66.

Sections: Introduction; The Sociolegal Nexus and Institutional Change; Conceptual Approach: Naming, Claiming, and Blaming in Kyrgyz Agriculture; Methods; Background; Reasons for Grievances in Commercial Disputes; Resolutions of Grievances in Commercial Disputes; Transformation of Disputes as a Reflection of a New Legal Consciousness; The Influence of Ideology on Commercial Transactions; The Constituted Nature of Beliefs and Disputes; Conclusion; Referrences

Cormier, Kelley E. “The Nature and Structure of Contracts in Kyrgyzstan’s Agricultural Sector: A Framework for Understanding Institutional Change.” Dissertation, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2007.

Sections: Introduction; A Review of Contracting Theory; Building a Theory of Contractual Intentions; Continuity and Change in Kyrgyzstan’s Agricultural Sector; The Transformation of Cultural Practices Into Customs; Rural Market Development in the Ferghana Valley; The Transformation of Commercial Customs Back to Practices; Research and Policy Implications

Giovarelli, Renee, and Cholpon Akmatova. “Local Institutions That Enforce Customary Law in the Kyrgyz Republic: And Their Impact on Women’s Rights.” Agriculture & Rural Development e-Paper (2002).

Sections: Research Objectives; Introduction and Background; Methodology; Findings; Analysis and Discussion; Conclusion; Recommendations

MacKay, Joseph. “Running Dry: International Law and the Management of Aral Sea Depletion.” Central Asian Survey 28, no. 1 (2009): 17-27.

Sections: Background; The Aral Sea in international law; The law on non-navigational uses of international watercourses; The convention on desertification; Regional efforts at regulation; Water as a resource in Kyrgyzstan’s domestic law; Some consequences;

Martin, Virginia. “Barimta: Nomadic Custom, Imperial Crime.” In Russia’s Orient: Imperial Borderlands and Peoples, 1700-1917, edited by Daniel R. Brower and Edward J. Lazzerini, 249-70. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1997.

Relevance:  “In this chapter, I have argued that while the practice of barimta survived by adjusting to a new colonial context, the Kazakh cultural understanding of the importance of honor, justice, and revenge remained the same. An examination of barimta shows that colonization brought new legal structures, but not necessarily new legal sensibilities, to the colonized.” (264)

Martin, Virginia. Law and Custom in the Steppe: The Kazakhs of the Middle Horde and Russian Colonialism in the Nineteenth Century. Richmond: Curzon, 2000.

Sections: Introduction Legal Culture in the Colonial Context; The Middle Horde Nomads and Colonial Rule; Nomadism and Adat; Law and Empire-Building; Settlement: Cossacks, Peasants and Nomads; Adat in Practice 1868-1898; Biys and Litigants; Land Disputes; Barimta; Conclusion

Merrell, David E. “State Engagement with Non-State Justice: How the Experience in Kyrgyzstan Can Reinforce the Need for Legitimacy in Afghanistan.” Central Asian Survey 29, no. 2 (2010): 205-17.

Sections: Introduction; Non-State Justice in Afghanistan and the Question of its Engagement with the State; State Engagement with Non-State Justice in Kyrgyzstan during Tsarist, Soviet and Post-Soviet Times; How the Experience in Kyrgyzstan Can Reinforce the Need for Legitimacy in Afghanistan; Conclusion

Merrell, David E. “Islam and Dispute Resolution in Central Asia: The Case of Women Muslim Leaders.” New Middle Eastern Studies (2011), http://www.brismes.ac.uk/nmes/.

Morozova, Irina. “Public Discussion on the ‘State of Law’ and Contemporary Political Regimes in Central Asia and the Southern Caucasus.” In Central Asian Law: An Historical Overview: A Festschrift for the Ninetieth Birthday of Herbert Franke, edited by Wallace Johnson and Irina F. Popova, 237-59. Lawrence, KS: Society for Asian Legal History, the Hall Center for the Humanities, the University of Kansas, 2004.

Sections: Introduction; The Different Systems of Law in Present Day Central Asia and the Southern Caucasus; Public Discussions on the State of Law in the Post-Soviet and the Post-Socialist States; Order, the State of Law and the Shadow of the Legal Economy in Contemporary Azerbaijan; The President, the Opposition and Discourse on Human Rights in Uzbekistan; The One-Party Parliament and the Reform of the Legislature in Post-Socialist Mongolia; Conclusion

Riazanovskii, Valentin Aleksandrovich. Customary Law of the Nomadic Tribes of Siberia. Bloomington: Indiana University, 1965.

Sections: Juristic Customs of the Kirghiz; Juristic Customs of the Ostyaks, Voguls and Samoyeds; Juristic Customs of the Altais and Teleuts; Juristic Customs of the Kuznetzk Tartars; Juristic Customs of the Buriats; Juristic Customs of the Tunguses; Juristic Customs of the Yakuts; Code of Steppe Laws of the Nomadic Tribes of Eastern Siberia; Conclusion (Fundamental Institutions of the Customary Law of the Nomadic Tribes of Siberia)

Johnson, Wallace, and Irina F. Popova, eds. Central Asian Law: An Historical Overview: A Festschrift for the Ninetieth Birthday of Herbert Franke, Society for Central Asian Legal History, Monograph Series. Lawrence, KS: Society for Asian Legal History, the Hall Center for the Humanities, the University of Kansas, 2004.

Sections
1. Some Reflections on Multinationality: The Example of Former Empires in East Asia, Herbert Franke
2. Customary Law in the Ancient Turkic States of Central Asia: the Legal Documents and Practical Regulations, S. G. Klyashtomyi
3. The Administrative and Legal Regulations of the Tang Emperors for the Frontier Territories, Irina F. Popova
4. Muslim Law in Central Asia, Ashirbek Muminov
5. Eighteen Steppe Laws - A Source for the Study of Medieval Mongolian, Alexei Nasilov
6. Customary Law in Waigal Valley, Eastern Afghanistan, Schuyler Jones
7. Disputes over Land-use in Qing Outer Mongolia Some Remarkson a Legal Question from an Historian’s Point of View, Veronika Veit
8. Communist and Post-Communist Mongolian Law and Pasture Land, Morris Rossabi
9. Some Characteristics of Penal Legislation among the Mongols, (13^th – 21^st Centuries), Francoise Aubin
10. From Colonization to Bolshevization: Some Political and Legislative Aspects of Molding a “Soviet Islam” in Central Asia, Bakhtiyar M. Babadjanov
11. Law and custom among the Uyghur in Xinjiang, Ildiko Beller-Hann
12. Constitutional regimes and clan politics in Central Asia, Janna Khegai
13. Islam and Universalism in Family Law: A Comparative Study of the Contemporary Iranian and Turkish Civil Codes, Hisae Nakanishi
14. Public Discussion on the ‘State of Law’ and Contemporary Political Regimes in Central Asia and the Southern Caucasus, Irina Morozova
15. Parliamentary Law-Making in Central Asia: Apparent Authority Meets Political Reality, Claire Weber