Hello all of you.

I join lately on this but I found comments on Sharia interresting. Not being Muslim nor religious, I am on the same boat. But having to watch on a daily base implementation of Sharia and other "traditional laws" (I just hate that qualification despite it is relevant) I would like to come with some comments.
First, as the anthropologist Elikia M'Bokolo demonstrated, what froze or fix the understanding of a law referal which is closed as Sharia or traditional African legal system is not the text itself but what the people do with it.
In most of the cases, it is not even the people in charge of interpreting and enforcing the law but the governing people who freeze those legal references.
The best exemple that come to my mind is Mobutu and his adoration for "autentique" (in french). By imposing to the people in Zaire (an "autentique" african name) to act as autentique African people, he just took them the liberty to just live and act in 20th century.
The interpretation of Sharia is closed? Well no! Sharia is a base to build legal system. Stoning women seems to be an atrocity (and it is) now days. But when it was set up, women found Sharia as a progress as they had a legal status and in exchange of some behaviours (as no adultary) they could access some rights. We have to remember here that women are considered as equal of men in most western countries since a very short time. In France, women can vote only since 1949. And I am not talking about having a personal bank account without their husband authorisation. Can't remember when but less than 50 years.
In some Islamic republic or Muslim countries, the law is not syaing that women have to be stoned in case of adultary. Just that on a legal base, it is a divorse in favour of the man. It was quite the same in our western countries just 50 years ago. So it is not the referal that has to change, it is its interpretation. And this is possible Even with Sharia.

Secondly, the ICC is a perfect example of West being particularly "traditionalist" or concervative. ICC is a progress as all law of war and geneva conventions recognise the individual responsability of war criminals. ICC is then just trying to be a court (the system is not perfect, far from it) that judge individual and not nations or armies. Nothing much new.
But, international powers as the US do not want ICC to overpass their privileges. International relations, especially war or the use of force, should not be judge by someone else than the country the criminal belongs to.
Basically, countries, at least governing people, are fine with what is and just do not want it to change.

Like JMM my cristal ball is cloudy for 1400 years far ahead predictions. But I gess that within 14 years nothing would have change much. Specially if rule of law enforcement and promotion does not change and pass through occupation and fake elections.

M-A