Nation-Building and Regulation of Pluri-Legal Jurisdictions: The Case of the Israeli Millet System

The Everyday Life of the State: A State-in-Society Approach, Adam J. White, ed, University of Washington Press (2013), pp. 91-105

8 Pages Posted: 11 Aug 2013 Last revised: 11 Oct 2013

See all articles by Yuksel Sezgin

Yuksel Sezgin

Syracuse University - Department of Political Science

Date Written: 2013

Abstract

Israel formally inherited the Ottoman millet system in 1948. The millet system was a highly pluralized legal system under which both the Ottoman and British imperial authorities granted juridical autonomy over matters of personal status (e.g., marriage, divorce, succession, maintenance) to eleven ethno-religious communities in Palestine. Since then, Israel has more or less preserved this highly plural legal system and further expanded it to include three more communities whose jurisdictions were not previously recognized under the Turkish or British rule. That is to say, Israel has not attempted to put an end to the multiplicity of religious courts and unify them under a network of national courts, as Egypt did in 1955. Nor has it ever tried to abolish the religious personal status laws of various communities and enact a uniform civil code in their place, as India attempted in the 1950s. Rather, it has retained the old millet system under which religious courts of fourteen state-recognized communities were granted exclusive jurisdiction over matters of marriage and divorce and concurrent jurisdiction with the civil courts over issues of maintenance and succession. In many regards, the retention of such an archaic system by a modern and an allegedly democratic polity as Israel is quite paradoxical, given that from the very moment of its inception, the Jewish State pledged itself to guarantee its citizens freedom of religion and conscience and to ensure complete equality of all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race, or gender. In this regard, the chapter addresses these two questions: (1) why Israel, as a highly centralized and democratic polity, has maintained such a fragmented system of law and courts that accentuates religious, ethnic, and gender-based inequalities, and (2) how such plural application of law and justice affects Israeli citizens’ fundamental rights and freedoms and what tactics and strategies people employ to cope with the limitations imposed upon their rights by communal institutions.

Suggested Citation

Sezgin, Yuksel, Nation-Building and Regulation of Pluri-Legal Jurisdictions: The Case of the Israeli Millet System (2013). The Everyday Life of the State: A State-in-Society Approach, Adam J. White, ed, University of Washington Press (2013), pp. 91-105, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2308074

Yuksel Sezgin (Contact Author)

Syracuse University - Department of Political Science ( email )

100 Eggers Hall
Syracuse, NY 13244-0001
United States
3154434431 (Phone)

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