The Law of the Somalis
The Law of the Somalis: A Stable Foundation for Economic Development in the Horn of Africa Michael Van Notten,
Publisher: The Red Sea Press, Inc.
ISBN: 156902250X
Edition: Paperback; 2005-11-27
Summary:
This book details many striking features of Somali customary law. It
is compensatory, for example, rather than punitive. Instead of being
imprisoned or otherwise punished, law breakers are required to
compensate their victims. A victim seldom fails to receive
compensation, moreover, because every Somali is insured by near kin
against his or her liabilities under the law. Being based on custom,
Somali law has no need of legislation or legislators, hence is
happily free of political influences. Even so, the author points out
areas in the law that are in need of change. These do not require
legislation, however; many desirable changes, such as ending
restrictions on the sale of land and enhancing the status of women,
are implicit in economic development. As for the Somali political
system, not only is there no need to set up a democracy, the author
clearly shows why any attempt to do so must inevitably produce chaos.
This book by a trained and sympathetic observer shows how, viewed in
global perspective, Somali law stands with the Latin and Medieval
laws and the English common law against the statutory law that
originated in continental Europe with the modern nation state. It
explains many seeming anomalies about present-day Somalia and
describes its prospects as well as the dangers facing it. Born in
Zeist, the Netherlands, in 1933, Michael van Notten graduated from
Leiden University in Law and was admitted into practice in Rotterdam.
He later served with a New York law firm and directed the Institution
Europaeum, a Belgium-based policy research organization. In the early
1990s, he became interested in the prospect of Somalia developing in
the modern world of a stateless society, and for the next twelve
years, he studied Somali customary law. A keen analyst of the
intricacies of clan politics, he traveled fearlessly in war-torn
Somalia. He died in Nimes, France, on June 5th, 2002
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