Introduction

1. Mutual Functionality between Legal History and Comparative Law

2. Egyptian Law and Its Arab Weight

3. Methodology and the Art of Borrowing

4. Types of Courtroom Oaths

Ⅰ The Courtroom Oath in Islamic Law, Theory and Practice

1. Islamic Law and Methodology: Legal History and Historical Law

2. Intimate Involvement of God

2.1 The meaning of power

2.2 Triple impact of anxiety

3. The Islamic Courtroom Oath as a Source of Legal Determination

3.1 The courtroom oath and the legal right

3.2 The binary approach: between the bayyina and the oath

3.3 Criticism of the binary approach

3.4 The paradox of the badhl and the restriction of the oath

4. The Types and Modalities of Islamic Oath

4.1 The manifestation of the oath

4.2 The interpretation of the future oath-objective or subjective

4.3 Extra-legal considerations

5. The Technique of the Courtroom Oath

6. The Positions of the Schools on the Subject of the Courtroom Oath: Malikites versus Hanafites

7. The Illusive Mental Dimension of the Islamic Courtroom Oath

8. The Scope of the Courtroom Oath: Issues That May Form the Subject of an Oath

9. A Confrontation between Forms of Proof and Legal Determination: The Oath versus the Bayyina

10. The Defendant and the Courtroom Oath

10.1 Affinity (khulta)

11. The Rerendering of the Oath and the Burden of Proof

11.1 The development of dynamic revision

12. The Paradox of Mutual Plaintiffs and Defendants (tahaluf)

12.1 The lot (qur'a) as a tool for courtroom determination

13. Cases in which the Plaintiff Takes the Oath: A Conceptual Challenge for the Hanafites

13.1 Rendering the oath to the plaintiff when the defendant cannot defend himself (yamin al-qada, yamin al-'istizhar)

13.2 The course and outcomes of the judicial oath

13.3 The oath in a hisba suit-between human and divine order

13.4 The oath with a single witness

13.5 An oath cannot be made regarding an unknown matter

14. Judicial Discretion and the Decisive Oath

14.1 Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya: from form to content

14.2 Restricted judicial space

14.3 Inspection of the legal competence of the parties

14.4 The mute's oath: when both verbal intention and inner intention are concealed

15. Can the Defendant Guide the Wording of the Oath in His Favor?

15.1 Redemption of an oath ('iftida') as avoidance of danger

16. A Religious Element in the Service of Law: The Intensification of the Oath

16.1 The text

16.2 Means of swearing on the Quran

16.3 Repetition

16.4 Way of ceremony (hal)

16.5 The dimension of place

16.6 The dimension of time

16.7 Non-Muslim

17. The Testimonial Oath

18. Special Types of Oaths: Curses (li'an) and Qasama

18.1 The terrible story of 'Uwaymar and his wife Khawla

18.2 Management of the curse procedure: the ceremony

18.3 The outcome of the curses procedure: Legal analysis

18.4 Fifty oaths as a single oath: The consequences of the qasama

18.5 The course of the oath: two schools of thought

Ⅱ Sui Generis, The Legal History of Courtroom Oath

1. 'Tortura Spiritualis'

1.1 The anxiety of the oath and the potential of self-destruction

1.2 Decisive and complementary courtroom oaths

1.3 First reference: courtroom oath in Judaism

1.4 Second reference: Courtroom oath in Greek and Roman law

1.5 Third reference: The oath in European law and criticism of the institution

1.6 Direct criticism of the courtroom oath

2. Courtroom Oath in Egyptian Legal History: Continuity and Omission

2.1 The 'social engineering' of the courtroom oath

2.2 Legislative sources and the functionality approach

3. Reinterpretation and the 'Stifling' of the Courtroom Oath

3.1 Reservations concerning the decisive oath in Franco-Egyptian law

3.2 The imprisoning framework of modern law

3.3 The old Egyptian code: an individualistic declaration and the disappearance of the complementary oath

3.4 About-turn: from the individualistic approach to the sociological one

3.5 The subjection of the oath to the doctrine of the abuse of a right (ta'assuf) and the super-doctrines

3.6 The sociological about-turn regarding the finality of the legal hearing

3.7 The technique of rapprochement and distancing vis-a-vis Islamic law

3.8 Prevarication around the term Bayyina

3.9 Kaffara (Penance) in the rule of religion and the rule of law: Imitatio Dei

3.10 Breaking the link with the Islamic sources: an independent entity

4. The Oath and 'Judicial Truth' as a Double Narrative

5. The Restriction of the Oath due to Injury to the Component of Legal Certainty

5.1 A ghost that may intervene at any stage

5.2 The oath and justice

5.3 The mechanical nature of the decisive oath

5.4 Extra-legal considerations

5.5 Custom, society and trust in the realm of the courtroom oath

5.6 Refusal to take the oath as a source of confession

Ⅲ The Egyptian Courtroom Oath and its Function

1. The Franco-Egyptian Courtroom Oath

1.1 The source of the written articles

1.2 Doctrines of reference and Legal system

1.3 Active involvement by leading French jurists

1.4 Borrowing the major transformation undergone by the French legal system

2. Research Methodology

3. The Paradox of the Courtroom Oath

4. The Presentation of Courtroom Oaths: Decisive and Complementary

5. The Decisive Oath as a Quasi-Contractual Model

6. The Decisive Oath as Equity

6.1 Legal justice and imbalance

6.2 The 'stroll through the realms of justice' parable

7. Judicial Discretion and the Decisive Oath

8. The Motif of Equality: The Oath is Granted to Both Parties

9. The 'Ritual' of the Oath and the Parties

10. The Balance of Threat of the Renderer

11. The Legal Capacity Required for a Decisive Oath

12. The Oath as a Text

13. 'Public Order', the Wild Horse, and Morality

14. The Oath and the Role of God as a Default

15. The Rerendering of the Oath

16. The Refusal (Nukul) to Take the Decisive Oath

17. The Doctrine of the Finality of the Hearing

18. The Decisive Oath Outside the Courtroom

19. The Complementary Oath

19.1 The management of the complementary oath

20. Hybrid Oaths: Between the Decisive Oath and the Complementary Oath

20.1 The oath of estimated value

20.2 The oath of affirmation

20.3 The oath of clarification ('istizhar)

21. The Testimonial Oath

Ⅳ Comparative Law-Two Oaths, Two Legal Regimes

1. A Current Thesis

2. A Charged Realm of Encounter

2.1 A historical perspective: divergence and rapprochement

2.2 Two chains of transmission of knowledge

2.3 The oaths and legal proceeding: Four chronological developments

2.4 Distinct points of departure

2.5 Points of contact

2.5.1 The Egyptian shaykh and Judge Makhluf al-Minyawi

2.5.2 The footnote technique

2.5.3 Terminology

2.5.4 The Shari'a Courts Procedural Law

2.5.5 The Iraqi civil code

3. The Decisive Oath and the Challenge of the Legal Right

4. The Oath between Legal Time and Human Time

4.1 Human time: the Islamic courtroom oath grants legitimacy to the Franco-Egyptian oath

4.2 Time as an agent of mutual threat

5. God as a Key Player

6. The Approach of Comparative Justice: Involvement or Interference?

7. Legal Reasoning and Intimidation

8. The Source of Authority: The Courtroom Oath as a Social Function

9. Judicial discretion and the Oath

10. The Mental Foundation of the Oath as a Subversive Element

10.1 'Intention' versus 'will' in the decisive oath

10.2 Mala fide: The mental foundation as a source of risk

11. Ceremony, Mysticism, and Ritual

12. The Oath and the Motif of Equality

13. The Realm of the Oath

14. The Relationship Created between the Parties to the Courtroom Oath

14.1 Access to the institution of the oath

14.2 The oath as distress for the defendant

14.3 The oath as the progenitor of a dynamic balance of power

14.4 The approach to non-Muslims as a function of sovereignty

14.5 The oath and considerations in penalization

15. Differences in Technique

15.1 The oath and the rerendered oath

15.2 The formulation of the oath text: Agreement or coercion

15.3 The oath versus the written document

15.4 The utterer and the text of the oath

16. The Complementary Oath: From a Binary Model to a Dynamic Perspective

Ⅴ Perjury as Ideology: The Motif of Falsehood in the Islamic and Franco-Egyptian Oaths

1. Introduction: The Transformation of the Perjury in Franco-Egyptian Law and the Concept of Falsum

1.1 'The concern of the gods'

1.2 Modern state and perjury

1.3 The changing perception of falsehood

2. A Proposed Model for Examining Perjury in Islamic Law

2.1 The component of falsum: The false oath versus the descending oath

2.2 The exposure of falsehood and the institution of tazkiyya

2.3 The use of equivocation and self-preservation

2.4 The spiritual dimension: The sin and its purgation

2.4.1 The alternative course approach

2.4.2 The strict approach

2.4.3 The lenient approach

2.5 The doctrine of the legal penalization of perjury in the fiqh

3. Perjury as an Institution and a Procedure in Egyptian Civil Law

3.1 Perjury between Islamic and Franco-Egyptian law

3.2 Without fanfare: perjury does not exist, as an institution, in Egyptian law

3.3 Further step toward the secular perception of falsehood

3.4 The scope of change in Arab legal systems

4. Perjury versus Courtroom Oath: Complement and Contrast

Bibliography

Index