Paper short abstract:

This paper investigates legal practices with a particular focus on property. The praxeological approach widens the understanding of legal phenomena inasmuch as it amplifies the notion of legal pluralism while augmenting it with the factor of context when it comes to legal practices based on alternative systems of reference.

Paper long abstract:

The notion of property as explored in the empirical study is related to questions of landownership, comercial transactions and family law (notably inheritance and divorce). The reference to the authority of Islam might be occasional and, when it appears, is part of the banality and routine of carrying out legal practice. Two major aspects understanding property will be highlighted: on the one hand the paper will try to describe the modes of use and reference to legal rules and their production - taking into consideration the impact of the context concerning decisions with regard to legal practices. On the other hand the notion of a transnational context plays a decisive role since the countries of origin's legal provisions differ from those of the country of permanent residence - particularly with regard to family law and the personal status. In this case, it is not that much the law of the countries of origin that matters than the practises informed by social and cultural habits and customs of the societies with which immigrants keep on maintaining may types of links. Eventually indications will be provided in order to asses which factors are specifically Islamic.

Selected cases will illustrate these aspects.