The Economics of Ottoman Justice
Settlement and Trial in the Sharia Courts

A systematic analysis of legal practice in a sharia court in the Ottoman Empire during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

Metin Co?gel (Author), Bo?aç Ergene (Author)

9781316610275, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 29 November 2018

364 pages, 5 b/w illus. 63 tables
23 x 15.3 x 2 cm, 0.53 kg

'In The Economics of Ottoman Justice, Cosgel and Ergene put Law and Economics insights to excellent use in analyzing data from an Ottoman court. Combine that with a historian's broad and deep appreciation for social and cultural context, and this book represents a model for how to do truly interdisciplinary scholarship.' Peter Siegelman, University of Connecticut Law School

During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the Ottoman Empire endured long periods of warfare, facing intense financial pressures and new international mercantile and monetary trends. The Empire also experienced major political-administrative restructuring and socioeconomic transformations. In the context of this tumultuous change, The Economics of Ottoman Justice examines Ottoman legal practices and the sharia court's operations to reflect on the judicial system and provincial relationships. Metin Co?gel and Bo?aç Ergene provide a systematic depiction of socio-legal interactions, identifying how different social, economic, gender and religious groups used the court, how they settled their disputes, and which factors contributed to their success at trial. Using an economic approach, Co?gel and Ergene offer rare insights into the role of power differences in judicial interactions, and into the reproduction of communal hierarchies in court, and demonstrate how court use patterns changed over time.

Introduction
Part I. Methodology and Background: 1. Quantitative approaches in research on Ottoman legal practice
2. Kastamonu: the town and its people
Part II. The Court and Court Clients: 3. The court, its actors, and its archive
4. Court use: a preliminary analysis
Part III. To Settle or Not to Settle: 5. Dispute resolution in Ottoman courts of law
6. Trial vs settlement: an economic approach
7. Which disputes went to trial? Case-type- and period-based analyses
Part IV. Litigations: 8. Rules and tools of litigation
9. Economics of litigation: what affects success at trial?
10. Who won? Case-type- and period-based analyses
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Middle Eastern history [HBJF1]