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The Expert Witness in Islamic Courts: Medicine and Crafts in the Service of Law. By RON SHAHAM. Chicago: UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS, 2010. Pp. x + 290. $50.
In order to adjudicate, courts use evidence to ascertain the facts before they can apply the law. However, sometimes facts are not obvious and require specialized knowledge to establish them. This is where expert witnesses come in. They not only testify to the readily observable facts but also to their inferences, which they are able to do because of their expertise. Their legal position and the rules to which they are subject vary from one legal system to the other and are clearly informed by cultural assumptions and norms. This is a recurrent theme in this study of the expert witness in Islamic courts.
The book is divided into two parts, each comprising three chapters. In the first the author examines the rules regarding the expert witness in pre-modern Islamic law. He discusses the question of the expert's probative status: is the expert's report regarded as independent evidence or must the rules regarding witnesses be applied? If the latter is the case, this would mean that men and women are treated differently and that at least two Muslim male expert witnesses of good reputation are required to establish a fact. As usual, opinion among the jurists is divided, although even those who require two experts accept the report of a single one in cases of necessity. A special position was reserved for female experts. In general women had a very restricted capacity to give testimony. However, in a...