Rediscovering a Marginalized Knowledge Tradition: A Preliminary Examination of Customary Law from the Perspective of Criminal Law

Author: Du Yu
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-12-01
Features: In this book, we not only conduct a thorough examination of the role of customary law in the current criminal theory system, but more importantly, gain a more authentic and clear understanding of its survival status in judicial practice. On this basis, we will further discover that there exists a significant contradiction, discontinuity, and tension between the current theoretical description of customary law and its judicial operations. As a result, we are compelled to engage in a new dialectical reflection on the relationship between criminal statutes and customary law. The further extension of this line of thought involves re-establishing and unleashing the due theoretical functions of customary law within the framework of the principle of criminal law determinacy, and re-examining and re-evaluating its role and value in the entire criminal theory system. In a certain sense, this book not only gently subverts the traditional narrative of "excluding customary law," but also creatively reconfigures the criminal role and value of customary law. From a broader perspective, the book delves into customary law from a side angle, highlighting the major crises faced by the principle of criminal law determinacy in the contemporary rule-of-law context, as well as potential solutions to such crises.