Islamic legal culture in Uzbekistan

Abstract

There was a widespread euphoria in the 1990s that introducing Western-style legal institutions and traditions would play a pivotal role in promoting the rule of law and democratization in post-Soviet societies. Like other post-Soviet states, Uzbekistan has become a ‘laboratory’ for testing various global (Western) good governance and rule of law initiatives. As a result of these interventions, Uzbekistan’s legal system represents a peculiar blend of Western and Soviet legal cultures: Western” from the “law in books” perspective (when we analyze its written laws and regulations) and “Soviet” from the “law in action” perspective (when observing how laws are applied and enacted by state institutions and officials). However, one dormant but highly salient legal order overlooked in the literature on Uzbekistan is the legacy of Islamic legal culture. With this in mind, this article explores the legacy and context of Islamic legal culture in Uzbekistan. I argue that the more the focus moves from state-centered understandings of law to ethnographic analyses of everyday life and micro-level social processes and structures, the more it becomes discernible that Islam serves as a legal order in Uzbekistan. These processes will be explored through the ethnographic study of mahallas (neighborhood communities) in Ferghana, Uzbekistan.