ABSTRACT
My research starts from observing the hybrid nature of the present Egyptian legal system that fuses together, in its fabric, two different legal sources with two different frames of reference. The first source is Islamic Shari’a, which was confined in 1883 to only the area of personal status. The second source, which constitutes the bulk of Egyptian laws and refers to other areas, draws from Western authorities and was introduced at the same time. The collision that took place between these two systems when they were brought together was substantial, and a great deal of time and effort was required to reconcile the tension between these two rival components and to facilitate the smooth administration of Egyptian justice. In this chapter, I will endeavor to shed light on these efforts and the methodologies adopted in fusing, to a working extent, the two essential components of the Egyptian legal system. I will briefly analyze the dramatic story of the sudden collision between these two systems and the gradual alleviation of the natural tension that resulted.
