Abstract
The Roman jurists, ancient rabbis and Muslim jurists were very different people. Above all, the rabbis and Muslim jurists were engaged on a search for law as truth. And the Roman jurists were much more obviously upper-class gentlemen.91 But the similarities are great. All three had a passion for legal interpretation. They delighted in discussing hypothetical cases. They chased after solutions by ways of reasoning devised by themselves. Practical utility, while present, was in the background. At times, to outsiders, their opinions seem outr6, even callous, remote from reality. They have little interest in what actually happens in court: their texts do not smell of the courtroom even when they invent new devices. They do not seek to devise a system of law. Nor do they propose radical reform. They write for those interested in the same issues as themselves. This article is a comparison of Roman and Islamic Law.
Repository Citation
Alan Watson and Khaled Abou El Fadl,
Fox Hunting, Pheasant Shooting and Comparative Law
(2000),
Available at: https://digitalcommons.law.uga.edu/fac_artchop/665