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Jordan CRIMINAL JUSTICE
Until the nineteenth century, the only source of law considered
to be valid in controlling criminal activity in the region that was
to become Jordan was Islamic religious law, or sharia. This law and
its application had remained static for centuries, subject only to
interpretation by the ulama (pl.; sing. alim, religious scholars)
and enforcement by Muslim judges (qadis) in sharia courts. Temporal
rulers could not, in theory, legislate rules to govern social
behavior; they could only hand down edicts to implement the
immutable divine law.
In the mid-1800s, reforms of the system were instituted to
enhance Ottoman control of the area. Comprehensive codes of law
based on European models became the basis of a new legal system,
and in 1858 a criminal code was adopted to support the reform
movement. The new code was based on French law, but in effect it
complemented sharia inasmuch as the French code was modified
to accommodate Muslim customs. For example, the Ottoman criminal
code imposed the payment of blood money in addition to imprisonment
for acts of homicide or bodily injury, and the death penalty for
apostasy was retained.
When the Ottoman Empire ceased to exist after World War I and
Britain became the mandatory power for Palestine and Transjordan,
the Ottoman laws in force were supplemented by British statutes. In
Palestine the 1858 criminal code was replaced by a new penal code
and a code of criminal procedure patterned on those used in British
colonies. The Palestinian courts, staffed by British and
British-trained judges, used their power to apply English common
law, and decisions could be appealed to the judicial committee of
the Privy Council in London. The influence of English law was
weaker in Transjordan, however, where there were no British judges,
and common law was not applied in the courts. Instead, the laws
that dealt with criminal behavior retained the European flavor of
the Ottoman code of 1858.
When the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan was proclaimed in 1949,
the ancient Ottoman code had been largely modified at the
insistence of moderates who believed that the sharia provisions on
which it had been based should be supplemented by--and, if
necessary, subordinated to--laws that could deal with modern
problems. The period of British tutelage did not significantly
change the substantive law, but it had the effect of weakening the
absolutist traditions of sharia in the field of criminal
jurisprudence. In the early 1950s, a committee of leading Muslim
scholars and jurists of several Arab countries convened with the
purpose of drafting new codes of criminal law and procedure to
replace the 1858 Ottoman code, which had been almost entirely
amended during the century it had been in force. In 1956 the
Jordanian National Assembly adopted a new criminal code and code of
criminal procedure. Both were based on the Syrian and Lebanese
codes, which in turn were modeled on French counterparts.
Within the realm of criminal jurisprudence, Jordan retained
only nominal application of sharia. Although the codified laws were
based on Islamic principles and customs, these were largely
modified and extended along European lines in an effort to adapt to
the requirements of a changing economy and culture.
Data as of December 1989
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