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SOMALIA
LITTLE KNOWN SOMALI CLAN LAW Michael van Notten has compiled some important material about the clan law that governs in the traditional Somali society 
Original article: http://explorersfoundation.org/glyphery/139.html Peter Burgess COMMENTARY I had the good fortune to meet Michael van Notten and his wife in Jijiga, in the Ogaden Region of Ethiopia, and subsequently in Somaliland. He introduced me to the basics of clan law, and the important characteristics of Somali society. I incorporated this into my recommendations for humanitarian relief and development in the region. It was encouraging that these recommendations were welcomed by Somali leaders, while the various factions of the UN system and the humanitarian aid expert agencies took issue with the work. Note that Somaliland has had about two decades of peace and progress while being ignored by the international experts, and the official Somalia governed from Mogadishu with the assistance of the international community ... money, guns, food, experts, etc. ... has been terribly violent and now in a state of catstrophic famine. COMMENTARY UPDATE JUNE 2023 It is now more than 30 years since I travelled with Michael in Ethiopia and Somaliland. I was working on a UN project for the repatriation of refugees between Ethiopia and Somalia and doing all I could to make sure that the international support that we were planning would actually be helpful rather than simply being emtpry platitudes. My own learning about the world had a very different journey than Michael's, but there were important commonalities ... not least of which was a respect for the culture of the community. The UN work I was doing had to do with the repatriation of refugees from Ethiopia back to Somaliland. The project that we put together was based as much as possible on the true goals of the target beneficiaries ... Somalis who had fled the violence some years before. My thinking was heavily influenced by a colleague on the project who was an Ethiopian staff member of the UN (and also happened to have a degree from Harvard) who understood the complexities of ALL the cultures involved. Our planning group had long group meetings that were chaotic, long, democratic, confusing and essentially effective. Notes from these day long meetings were written up (in English) every evening and shared next day with everyone involved with the meetings. I did not know this at the time ... but they were also shared with top people in the Somaliland government administration who followed what we were doing with great interest. By the time our anlysis work was done, there were a lot of people who knew quite a lot about what out UN team would be recommending. We shared some of our draft work with Michael who arranged for several key parts of the report to be 'mapped' in an effective visual way ... as they say, 'a picture is worth a thousand words!. And now the formal work of our team was complete ... the report was written. But it really was just the beginning of problems. We had some very good news. A day after our report was 'finalized' the President of Somaliland accepted the findings and committed to the implementation of the program. It turned out that he had been following the detail progress of our work and knew exactly what was involved ... in general, had liked it, and where he did not, had made sure that we got feedback as out work had progressed. The UN on the other hand was completely unprepared for a report that had an actionable and urgent program. They were anticipating a multi-month period of analysis and review in the regional office in Addis Ababa and the UN central offices in New York. Compared to 'top' experts, I am something of an amateur, but I have a broader view of issues, problems and possibilties than most which helps me to see roadblocks and possibilities in a quite constructive way. Somaliland is a problem for the global international community ... it has a government, but the country of Smaliland simply does not exist. It is merely a 'breakaway' region of Somalia, that for all UN purposes is part of Somalia. The physical reality and administrative processes of the UN and other inter-governmental bodies are completely at odds with each other. This includes the African Development Bank (AfDB) at the time with its office in the Cote d'Ivoire. I made two trips to Abidjan to the AfDB to advocate for funding for the program that had been developed around returnees in Somaliland ... and hit a brick wall. It was ironic that a number of the people who were working at the AfDB were natives of Somaliland and they were very clear that my hopes could never by realized. And of course they were right. Somalia had a problem with Somaliland ... but the UK had a problem with Northern Ireland ... and Canada has a problem with Quebec ... and Spain with the Basque region ... and so on. When it comes to borders, the international community does not want to do anything. Peter Burgess | ||
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glyph 139: book . Michael van Notten, Spencer Heath MacCallum (editor) . Somalia, Africa, Horn of Africa . tribal law ... limits of democracy, politial science . government . central state vs. distributed state . custom, common law, judge found law vs. legislated, statute, law ... Tom Bell: privately produced law ... kritarchy ... Alan Bock . Tom Bell . James C. Bennett: Anglosphere, polycentric law ... Bruno Leoni . Roman law The Law of the Somalis, by Michael Van Notten tribal law enhanced for world market participation Michael van Notten's, The Law of the Somalis: A Stable Foundation for Economic Development in the Horn of Africa, was published by the Red Sea Press, Inc. in 2005. The book is available from Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Law-Somalis-Foundation-Economic-Development/dp/156902250X/ref=sr_1_1/104-4383524-4955914?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1174748704&sr=1-1 The following description of van Notten's book is taken from the Editorial Preface, by Spencer Heath MacCallum. The entire Preface is available here: http://explorersfoundation.org/archive/139t1-somalis-preface.pdf Chapter 1 of the book is here: http://explorersfoundation.org/archive/139t2-somalis-ch1.pdf Somali law is based on custom. Hence Somalis have no need of a legislator, and as a result, their law is free of political influences. That freedom makes for laws of better quality than in most other countries. Somali society comes rather close to what is sometimes called' the natural order of human society.# When they wrote the United Nations Charter in 1945, the founding fathers of the United Nations may have envisioned such a natural order among nations rather than a democracy. If that was their intention, however, their political principles were forgotten four years later when the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted. That document signaled the United Nation's commitment to 'politics as usual.' Somalis had had enough of that kind of politics. In 1991, they returned to their traditional form of government which, in broad outline, is remarkably similar to that set out in the United Nations Charter.' Among the controversial topics touched upon in this book are these: 1. The concepts of property right, freedom of contract, and justice were discovered and first developed not by the technologically advanced societies but by tribal societies. 2. Crime can be defined in terms of property rights. 3. Government can neither add to nor subtract from the concept just stated, since property rights only oblige criminals to compensate their victims; they do not demand punishment. 4. Property rights are better protected by private agencies such as insurance companies than by central governments. 5. Every person should be insured for his liabilities under the law. 6. Law consists solely of principles and rules relating to property rights. 7. Custom provides a better basis for law than legislation. 8. Customary law generally shows a high regard for property rights. 9. Somalis generally prefer their customary law over Korannic law. 10. Democracy is not compatible with property rights; the political system that is compatible with property rights is called 'kritarchy.' 11. Somalis prefer kritarchy to democracy. 12. Democracy cannot function in a close-knit clan society. Spencer MacCallum, the editor, writes: I'm interested in finding readers for The Law of the Somalis. If you've any suggestions please contact me at 'sm *at* look *dot* net', or phone me in Mexico at 915-261-0502. On the question of someone going to Somalia to study the economy, I understand that some of Dan Klein's economics students at the University of Santa Clara will be making the trip shortly. —Spencer MacCallum, posted November 29, 2004, edited by Leif Smith, March 12, 2007, to accord with the publication of the book in 2005. ... The law system described in this book may well be unique in today's world. Perhaps its most striking feature is that it does not provide for the punishment of criminals. Law breakers are not imprisoned but are required, instead, to compensate their victims. Fines, if any, are seldom higher than the amount of compensation due and are paid to the victim rather than to the government. Another surprising feature is that all Somalis are insured for their liabilities under the law. A consequence of this is that victims always receive compensation, even if their rights were violated by children or by adults who are penniless, mentally ill, or have fled abroad. ... The author has lived among the Somalis for ten years. He maintains that there is now less crime under their customary law than there would have been under any system of democratic law. Even so, he offers several suggestions for improving Somali law. In particular, he proposes ending restrictions on the sale of land and increasing the protection of women. He then proposes establishing freeports to promote economic development. This book shows that the present system of customary law is fully capable of maintaining a peaceful society and guiding the Somali nation to prosperity. Only minor changes are needed to enable it to function in the global market economy. The same holds true for the Somali political system. Not only is there no need to establish a federal democracy; the author maintains that any attempt to do so must inevitably lead to chaos. The Law of the Somalis on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Law-Somalis-Foundation-Economic-Development/dp/156902250X/ref=sr_1_1/104-4383524-4955914?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1174748704&sr=1-1 See also glyph 392: Somalia - Clan Owned Freeports as Multi-Tenant Income Properties: http://explorersfoundation.org/glyphery/392.html Suggested Readings http://explorersfoundation.org/archive/139t3-somalis-readings.pdf 'From Nation-State to Stateless Nation: The Somali Experience', by van Notten http://www.liberalia.com/htm/mvn_stateless_somalis.htm 'Is Somalia a Model?', by Alan Bock http://www.antiwar.com/bock/b042903.html Privately Produced Law, the work of Tom Bell http://explorersfoundation.org/glyphery/284.html Polycentric law, James C. Bennett http://explorersfoundation.org/archive/anglosphere_primer.html Discussion From http://blog.mises.org/blog/archives/002756.asp Spencer's work with the great artist and potter, Juan Quezada, Mata Ortiz, Chihuahua, Mexico http://explorersfoundation.org/glyphery/5.html http://explorersfoundation.org/glyphery/139.html entered before July 9, 2006; edited/updated April 15, 2010 The Law of the Somalis: A Stable Foundation for Economic Development in the Horn of Africa Paperback – November 27, 2005 by Michael van Notten (Author), Spencer Heath MacCallum (Editor) 4.8 4.8 out of 5 stars 14 ratings See all formats and editions Paperback $24.95 Other options from $19.96 Extra Savings 90 days FREE Amazon Music. Terms apply. 1 Applicable Promotion This book details many striking features of Somali customary law. It is compensatory, for example, rather than punitive. Instead of being imprisoned or otherwise punished, law breakers are required to compensate their victims. A victim seldom fails to receive compensation, moreover, because every Somali is insured by near kin against his or her liabilities under the law. Being based on custom, Somali law has no need of legislation or legislators, hence is happily free of political influences. Even so, the author points out areas in the law that are in need of change. These do not require legislation, however; many desirable changes, such as ending restrictions on the sale of land and enhancing the status of women, are implicit in economic development. As for the Somali political system, not only is there no need to set up a democracy, the author clearly shows why any attempt to do so must inevitably produce chaos. This book by a trained and sympathetic observer shows how, viewed in global perspective, Somali law stands with the Latin and Medieval laws and the English common law against the statutory law that originated in continental Europe with the modern nation state. It explains many seeming anomalies about present-day Somalia and describes its prospects as well as the dangers facing it. Born in Zeist, the Netherlands, in 1933, Michael van Notten graduated from Leiden University in Law and was admitted into practice in Rotterdam. He later served with a New York law firm and directed the Institution Europaeum, a Belgium-based policy research organization. In the early 1990s, he became interested in the prospect of Somalia developing in the modern world of a stateless society, and for the next twelve years, he studied Somali customary law. A keen analyst of the intricacies of clan politics, he traveled fearlessly in war-torn Somalia. He died in Nimes, France, on June 5th, 2002 Print length 272 pages Language English Publisher The Red Sea Press, Inc. Publication date November 27, 2005 Dimensions 5.51 x 0.83 x 8.5 inches ISBN-10 156902250X Editorial Reviews About the Author Spencer Heath MacCallum is a social anthropologist living in Casas Grandes, Chihuahua, Mexico, where he played a central role in the economic development of the village of Mata Ortiz, now known internationally for its fine-art pottery. He has long studied the feasibility of social organization without taxation. He is the author of THE ART OF COMMUNITY and numerous journal articles. Product details Publisher : The Red Sea Press, Inc. (November 27, 2005) Language : English Paperback : 272 pages ISBN-10 : 156902250X ISBN-13 : 978-1569022504 Item Weight : 12.4 ounces Dimensions : 5.51 x 0.83 x 8.5 inches Best Sellers Rank: #3,107,609 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) Customer Reviews: 4.8 4.8 out of 5 stars 14 ratings Michael van Notten ... Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more
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