Justice in Islamic and Western Societies Essay

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Concept	Islamic Societies	Western Societies (U.S. Justice System as an Example)
Foundation of the law	Islam and its principles serve as the platform for jurisprudence and legislation	Democratic principles denying the dominance of any religious principles define the choice of the legal standards and practices
Role of the key legal figures	The mufti performs the function of an implementer of the existing Islamic regulations; The mufti plays the role of the man who implements the qiyas (legal standards)	The judge serves as the person that enforces the law and ensures that all regulations are followed; The judge may play the part of a fact finder in specific cases; The jury is the body that decides whether a defendant is guilty or not.
Court	The Islamic court represents a rigid structure based on the Sharia principles	A typical Western court represents a rigid structure based on the principles established in the state law. For instance, in the U.S. justice system, the Constitutional Law and the Amendments play an important part.
Court types	Civil courts (general and summary courts); Criminal courts (Hamoudi and Cammack 152)	Supreme courts; Courts of appeals; District courts (Ford et al. 498)
Punishment	Physical punishment may ensure in specific cases;	Typically, physical punishment is absent from the Western legal system; instead, either prison time or fine is used as a punishment (Rosen 166).
Social justice	The system of social justice is rather poorly developed’; Justice without practical application viewed as a utopian idea; Political structure affects the levels of and changes within social justice (Hamoudi and Cammack 89).	The system of social justice is highly developed; High levels of social activism among western citizens are observed; Social justice affects the use of laws in court cases to a certain extent (Ford et al. 129)
Political structure	The social justice framework can contribute to the development of a specific type of society; The existing political structure has a direct and meaningful effect on the enactment and implementation of the legal principles and functioning of the legal system; The unity of the human race is deemed as the foundation for any decision made in the context of the legal system (Hamoudi and Cammack 699)	The social justice standards are defined by the society in which they are produced, and this effect is rarely reciprocal; The existing political structure has few to none effect on the implementation and quality of the legal system within the state; The decisions made in the realm of the legal system are justified by legal standards and a system of ethical beliefs (Ford et al. 318).
Criticism and the focus thereof	In the Islamic justice system and especially the social justice framework, the principles of secularism are typically targeted.	In the western philosophy, the ideas of Utilitarianism are deemed an ethically questionable from the perspective of the legal system;
Freedom and responsibility	Freedom and responsibility are defined by the principles of the Sharia;	The postulates of liberty and responsibility are defined by the existing democratic principles;
Rationality from the perspective of the legal system	Rationality as the embodiment of the divine command that guides the decision-making in the legal system of Islam; Liberty as a psychological notion that is linked directly to the spiritual development of an individual.	Rationality as a variation of common sense and a self-explanatory string of reasoning; Social liberty as the focus of the rational analysis and a foundational principle of the legal system (Ford et al. 321).
Equality as the cornerstone of the contemporary justice system	Equality playing the second part in the context of the Islam legal standards compared to the notion of liberty	Equality regarded as a critical component of the social justice philosophy;
Supporter of justice	The social principles and the well-being of the general audience is regarded as the supporter of justice	The Individualist ideas serve as the key supporter of justice and the relevant regulations;
Social order	Social order is viewed as the direct effect of the realization of justice.	Social order is regarded as the implication of an individual’s decision-making and the choices made by them.
List of social minimum	Human instincts serve as the foundation for the implementation of the social minimum justice.	The original position concerning the concept is supported.
Concept of the human civilization	Is interpreted as the outcome of God’s will being implemented by people; Deductive principles making the core of the understanding of how the human civilization works.	Is seen as the product of individuals’ work; Inducting reasoning determining the results of the analysis of how the human civilization has been affected by the choices of specific people.
Public issues	Instances of civil disobedience as the focus of the public justice; The process is entirely open for everyone to observe;	Civil disobedience cases being tried in court; The court sessions are only available for the jury and other members of the court to see (Ford et al. 121).
Abiding the law	Fidelity to the law is regarded as the intrinsic moral system of belief that defines the morality of the community;	Fidelity to the law is seen as a crucial requirement for any citizen, yet the nature of the subject matter is not regarded as intrinsic to the human nature.

Works Cited

Ford, Lynne E., et al. American Government and Politics Today. 2017-2018 ed., Cengage Learning, 2016.

Hamoudi, Haider Ala, and Mark Cammack. Islamic Law in Modern Courts. Wolters Kluwer Law & Business, 2018.

Rosen, Lawrence. Islam and the Rule of Justice: Image and Reality in Muslim Law and Culture. University of Chicago Press, 2018.

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