Tribal and State Justice Systems in Contemporary Jordan: Conceptual Conflicts and their Practical Resolution.

Both the Jordanian state and Jordanian tribes have well-developed justice systems that appear to operate separately but are, in practice, often deeply enmeshed. This article examines these two systems and how they interact. It focuses on a case study—a murder in 2016—and how different actors approached its aftermath. This case provides an example of how both state and tribal justice systems can work in practice. Here, and notwithstanding efforts by some tribal leaders, government officials, and courts to limit, reject, or ignore tribal practices, state and tribal actors facilitate a role for each other while also maintaining their own authority in particular contexts. This adds to understandings of how different legal systems and sources of authority—tribe and state—can operate together, challenging any ostensibly neat categorisation of these systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]