Doctoral Dissertation Improvement: A Man's Word: Dispute Resolution in an Egyptian Port

博士论文改进：一个人的话：埃及港口的争议解决

• 批准号: 0716100
• 负责人: Talal Asad
• 金额: $ 0.57万
• 依托单位: CUNY Graduate School University Center
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2007
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2007-07-01 至 2007-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0716100&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Improvement; Man; Word

PI and Co-PI: Talal Asad and Christine Hegel (co-PI)Title: Doctoral Dissertation Research: A Man's Word: Dispute Resolution in an Egyptian Port0716100Project AbstractThis qualitative research project investigates how inhabitants of Port Sa'id, Egypt resolve common civil disputes by making the most of spaces in the law and on the margins of law. It examines disputes in social context in order to observe the various means by which resolutions are obtained, taking into account not only 'legal' aspects of the dispute resolution process, such as hiring a lawyer, raising an action for damages, and court proceedings, but also simultaneous and overlapping processes of negotiation and mediation and the use of semi-legal 'customary' documents (muharrar 'urfi). As such, the study highlights the complex and permeable relationship between 'custom' ('urf), variously imagined and enacted, and law. The research poses the questions: When do people invoke the law in dispute resolution, and what form does this invocation take? Further, how and why do lawyers facilitate the use of multiple resources in civil disputes? Finally, how do people shape what the law means and can do by layering legal and non-legal strategies, and what might this tell us about the meaning of 'custom' in contemporary Egypt? Data will be collected through interviews and discussions with those involved in legal disputes or contemplating legal action. Data will also be drawn from secondary sources, including legal documents, local newspapers, and other locally published historical, socio-economic, and legal materials. This study engages with prior work on dispute resolution towards the goal of re-examining some critical assumptions in the theorization of disputing. In particular, the typical analytical divide between the formal milieu of the courts and the realm of informal mediation, negotiation, and reconciliation processes is herein re-envisioned as fundamentally intertwined, rather than clearly demarcated as separate spheres of action and rules. This qualitative research will also provide a necessary complement to formalistic and historical studies of law in the Middle East. Despite the abundance of scholarly work on the development of the Egyptian civil code, for instance, and the diminishing scope and authority of shari'a in many Middle Eastern countries, there is much to be understood about what happens when actual cases are presented in court, and about how people resolve problems by invoking, referencing, and interpreting the law. The research will have broader impacts by contributing qualitative data critical for comparative work on legal systems. Contemporary geopolitics reveal the dearth of knowledge about how the law is lived and deployed in everyday life in the Middle East, and this study is intended as a much-needed corrective. In particular, the attention paid to mediation practices and customary documents is designed to complicate idealized understandings of how customary law enters into contemporary urban life in the Middle East. This study considers dispute resolution processes in order to address broader questions of legal authority in the Middle East, particularly in the context of authoritarian rule, and seeks to demonstrate how people, by taking things 'into their own hands', remake the meanings of justice, obligation, and right. Dissemination of the research will take several forms, including: presentation of papers on the research at the 2007 Law and Society Association Conference and at the American Anthropological Association 2007 Annual Meetings, future publications in scholarly journals, and by giving copies of the completed dissertation to a number of academic institutions in Egypt to build upon the body of knowledge available on Port Sa'id and it's communities within Egypt.

项目名称：博士论文研究：一个人的话语：埃及的争议解决项目摘要：本定性研究项目调查了埃及萨伊德港的居民如何通过充分利用法律中的空间和法律的边缘来解决常见的民事纠纷。它考察社会背景下的争端，以观察获得决议的各种手段，不仅考虑到争端解决过程的“法律”方面，如聘请律师，提出损害赔偿诉讼和法庭诉讼，还考虑到谈判和调解的同时和重叠过程以及半法律“习惯”文件的使用（muharrar 'urfi）。因此，该研究强调了“习俗”（urf）与法律之间复杂而可渗透的关系，这些关系是各种想象和制定的。研究提出了以下问题：人们在解决纠纷时何时援引法律？这种援引采取何种形式？此外，律师如何以及为什么在民事纠纷中促进多种资源的使用？最后，人们如何通过法律和非法律策略的分层来塑造法律的意义和作用，这可能告诉我们当代埃及“习俗”的含义？数据将通过与涉及法律纠纷或考虑采取法律行动的人进行访谈和讨论来收集。数据也将取自二手资料，包括法律文件、当地报纸和其他当地出版的历史、社会经济和法律资料。本研究与先前的争议解决工作相结合，旨在重新审视争议理论化中的一些关键假设。特别是，法院的正式环境与非正式调解、谈判和和解进程领域之间的典型分析分歧，在这里被重新设想为从根本上交织在一起，而不是明确划分为单独的行动领域和规则。这种定性研究也将为中东法律的形式主义和历史研究提供必要的补充。尽管有大量关于埃及民法典发展的学术研究，例如，伊斯兰教法在许多中东国家的范围和权威都在缩小，当实际案件在法庭上出现时，人们如何通过援引、引用和解释法律来解决问题，还有很多需要理解的地方。这项研究将通过提供对法律制度比较工作至关重要的定性数据，产生更广泛的影响。当代地缘政治揭示了关于法律如何在中东的日常生活中生活和部署的知识的缺乏，本研究旨在作为急需的纠正。特别是，对调解实践和习惯法文件的关注旨在使对习惯法如何进入中东当代城市生活的理想化理解复杂化。本研究考虑了争端解决过程，以解决中东地区更广泛的法律权威问题，特别是在威权统治的背景下，并试图展示人们如何通过“掌握自己的手中”来重塑正义、义务和权利的含义。研究的传播将采取几种形式，包括：在2007年法律与社会协会会议和美国人类学协会2007年年会上发表研究论文，未来在学术期刊上发表论文，并将完成的论文副本提供给埃及的一些学术机构，以建立在萨伊德港及其在埃及的社区的知识体系之上。