Language and the Law: A Comparison of the American and Islamic Legal Systems
Humanities
Literature 190L Winter 2017
A comparison of the American and Islamic legal systems reveals how language poses a fundamental problem to the premise of the law. Language and the law are at odds with one another—the law purports to derive order from chaos, but language is a medium of disorder, constantly assuming the shape and texture of its surroundings. The necessity of language to the law requires linguistic interpretation, but the nature of language ensures that such interpretation will prove inadequate. This paradox, of organizing society through an inadequate medium, lies concealed beneath the surface of American and Islamic jurisprudence. In this way, the two systems have similar theoretical trajectories, complicating the traditional “modern versus premodern” binary that undergirds many discussions of the law.
