Formalising the informal through legal practice. The case of prostitution in authoritarian Tunisia
Abstract
This article explores the dynamics of the law in action beyond the binary formal/informal, using Tunisian jurisprudence in the field of prostitution as a case study. It examines what the formal/informal distinction means in an authoritarian context where formal norms contrast significantly with informal norms: do judges apply the formal norm, or do they apply the informal one, and if so, how do they justify this? This article argues that judges instrumentalise a formal norm (i.e. the ban on prostitution) to impose an informal one (prohibiting extra-marital sex). As a result, the norm prohibiting extra-marital sex can no longer be situated in the formal/informal divide: it is not informal, as judges are State officials punishing the violation of this norm; and it is not formal either, since the norm does not form part of legislation and Tunisian judges, exercising their profession in a civil law country, do not make law.
References
Al-Ali, N 2003, ‘Gender & civil society in the Middle East’, International Feminist Journal of Politics, vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 216-232.
Ali, K 2010, Marriage and Slavery in Early Islam, Harvard University Press, Cambridge MA.
Beaumont, V 2010, ‘Amitiés particulières au Maghreb: sociabilités et discours homosexuels’, L’Année du Maghreb, vol. 6, pp. 221-252.
Ben Achour, S 2001, ‘Féminisme d’État: féminisme ou défiguration du féminisme?’, viewed 27 November 2018,
.
Ben Achour, S 2005-2006, ‘Le code tunisien du statut personnel, 50 ans après: les dimensions de l’ambivalence’, l’Année du Maghreb, vol. 2, pp. 54-70.
Ben Achour S 2016, Violences à l'égard des femmes: les lois du genre, Euromedrights.
Ben Achour, R 1995, ‘L’État de droit en Tunisie’, Annuaire de l’Afrique du Nord, pp. 245-256.
Ben Achour, Y 1987, ‘La réforme des mentalités: Bourguiba et le redressement moral’, in M Camau (ed.), Tunisie au présent. Une modernité au-dessus de tout soupçon? Éditions du CNRS, pp. 145-159.
Ben Said, I 2017, ‘#Manich Msamaha: anti-corruption is a feminist agenda’, The Washington Institute Fikra Forum, 18 October, viewed 26 November 2018,
anti-corruption-is-a-feminist-agenda]>.
Bessis, S 1999, ‘Le féminisme institutionnel en Tunisie’, Clio. Histoire Femmes et Société, vol. 9, pp. 1-9.
Bier, L 2011, Revolutionary Womanhood, Feminisms, Modernity and the State in Nasser’s
Egypt, Stanford University Press, Stanford CA.
Boukhayatia, R 2916a, ‘Tunisie: Abus, excès de zèle des policiers... la police tunisienne est-elle une police des mœurs?’ Huffpost Maghreb, 19 January, viewed 26 November 2018,
policiers_n_9009674.html (2016b)>.
Boukhayatia, R 2016b, ‘Tunisie: Des filles arrêtées car elles buvaient dans un bar, annonce le ministère de l'Intérieur’, Huffpost Maghreb, 24 November, viewed 26 November 2018,
https://www.huffpostmaghreb.com/2016/11/24/tunisie-bar-filles-_n_13206756.html (2016a).
Bowen, J 2001, Shari‘a, State and Social Norms in France and Indonesia, ISIM, Leiden.
Burgat, F 1992, ‘Rachid Ghannouchi: Islam, nationalisme et islamisme’, Egypte/Monde arabe vol. 10, pp. 109-122.
Camau, M 2004, ‘Leader et leadership en Tunisie. Potentiel symbolique et pouvoir autoritaire’, in M Camau & V Geisser (eds.), Habib Bourguiba. La trace et l'héritage, Karthala, pp. 169-191.
Camau, M 2005, ‘Remarques sur la consolidation autoritaire et ses limites’, in M Camau & L Martinez (eds.), L'autoritarisme dans le Monde arabe, Cedej, pp. 9-51.
Charfi, M 1997, Introduction à l’étude de droit, Cérès, Tunis.
Chouikha, L 2005, ‘La question du hijab en Tunisie. Une amorce de débat contradictoire’, in F Lorcerie (ed.), La politisation du voile en France, en Europe et dans le monde arabe, L'Harmattan, pp. 161-179.
Daoud, Z 1993, Féminisme et politique au Maghreb, soixante ans de lutte, Edition Eddif, ACCt, Casablanca.
Fuller, C. 1994, ‘Legal anthropology, legal pluralism and legal thought’, Anthropology Today, vol. 10, no. 3, pp. 9-12.
Galanter, M 1981, ‘Justice in many rooms. Courts, private ordering and indigenous law’, The Journal of Legal Pluralism and Unofficial Law, vol. 13, no. 19, pp. 1-47.
Hatem, MF 1992, ‘Economic and political liberation in Egypt and the demise of State feminism’, International Journal of Middle East Studies, vol. 24, no. 2, pp. 231-251.
Hibou, B 1999, ‘Tunisie: le coût d'un « miracle »’, Critique internationale, vol. 3, no. 4, pp. 48-56.
Kerrou, M & and M'halla, M 1991, ‘La prostitution dans la médina de Tunis aux IXème et XXème siècles’, Annuaire de l'Afrique du Nord, vol. 30, pp. 201-221.
Lauth, H-J 2000, ‘Informal institutions and democracy’, Democratization, vol. 7, no. 4, pp. 21-50.
Link, J & Hall, MM 2004, ‘From the “Power of the norm” to “Flexible normalism”: considerations after Foucault’, Cultural Critique, vol. 57, pp. 14-32.
Marzouki, I 1993, Le movement des femmes en tunisie au XXème siecle: féminisme et politique, Cérès, Paris.
McBride Stetson, D & Mazur AG 2010, ‘Introduction to comparative State feminism’, in ML Crook & S Childs (eds.), Women, Gender and Politics: A Reader, Oxford University Press, pp. 319-324.
Meddeb, A 2012, ‘L'avenir de la liberté en Tunisie. Bourguiba, en guise d'inventaire’, Esprit, no. 5, pp. 61-73.
Merry, SE 1988, ‘Legal pluralism’, Law and Society Review, vol. 22, no. 5, pp. 869-896.
O'Donnell, G 1996, ‘Another institutionalization: Latin America and elsewhere’, Working Paper, the Helen Kellogg Institute for international studies, viewed 26 November 2018,
.
Olivier de Sardan, J-P 2015, ‘Practical norms: Informal regulations within public bureaucracies (in Africa and beyond)’, in T de Herdt & J-P Olivier de Sardan, Real Governance and Practical Norms in Sub-Saharan Africa, Routledge.
Redissi, H 2004, ‘L'autoritarisme de Bourguiba. Continuités et ruptures’, in M Camau & V Geisser (eds.), Habib Bourguiba. La trace et l'héritage, Karthala.
Peters, R 2005, Crime and Punishment in Islamic Law, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Rosen, L 1989, An Anthropology of Justice. Law as Culture in Islamic Society, Princeton University Press, Princeton.
Routh, S 2011, ‘Building informal workers agenda: imagining “informal employment” in conceptual resolution of “informality”’, Global Labour Journal, vol. 2, no. 3, pp. 208-227.
Starr, J 1985, ‘Folk law in official courts in Turkey’, in A Ellott (ed.), People's Law and State Law, De Gruyter, pp. 123-142.
Stromholm, S 1994, ‘Scandinavian Realism’, European Review, vol. 2, no. 3, pp. 193-199.
Taraud, Ch 2009, La prostitution coloniale. Algérie, Maroc, Tunisie (1830-1962), Éditions Payot & Rivages, Paris.
Tobich, F 2008, Les statuts personnels dans les pays arabes, de l'éclatement à l'harmonisation, Presses Universitaires d'Aix-Marseille, Aix-en-Provence.
Voorhoeve, M 2014, ‘Informal transactions with the police: the case of Tunisian “sex crimes”’, Middle East Law and Governance, vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 70-92.
Voorhoeve, M 2014, Gender and Divorce Law in North Africa, IB Tauris, London.
Voorhoeve, M 2018, ‘Law and social change in Tunisia: the case of unregistered marriage’, Oxford Journal of Law and Religion, vol. 7, no. 3, pp. 479-497.
Welchman, L 2007, Women and Muslim Family Laws in Arab States: A Comparative Overview of Textual Development and Advocacy, Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam.
White, JB 2003, ‘State Feminism, modernization, and the Turkish Republican Woman’, NWSA Journal, vol. 15, no. 3, pp. 145-159.
Full Text: pdf
Refbacks
- There are currently no refbacks.