Kritarchy

{{Short description|Ancient Israeli system of rule by Biblical judges}} {{for2|Canaanite rulers|Shophet||Judicial activism}} {{Forms of government}} '''Kritarchy''', also called '''kritocracy''', was the system of rule by Hebrew Bible judges ({{langx|he|שׁוֹפְטִים|Šop̄əṭim}}, see also shophetim) in ancient Israel, started by Moses according to the Book of Exodus,<ref>{{bibleref|Exodus|18:13–26|NRSV}}</ref> before the establishment of a united monarchy under Saul.{{sfn|Zettler|1978|p=84}}{{sfn|Hellweg|1993|p=71}}

Because the name is a compound of the ancient Greek words {{lang|grc|κριτής}}, {{lang|el-latn|krites}} ("judge") and {{lang|el|ἄρχω}}, {{lang|el-latn|árkhō}} ("to rule"),{{sfn|Ayittey|2006|p=305}} its colloquial use has expanded to cover rule by judges in the modern sense as well. To contrast such a rule by (modern) judges with the actual form of the 1996 Constitution of South Africa, judge Albie Sachs coined the term '''dikastocracy''' for it, from {{lang|grc|δικαστής}} ("judge"), rejecting the coinage '''juristocracy'''{{sfn|Hirschl|2007}} for being an admixture of Latin and Greek.{{sfn|Cornell|van Marle|2014|p=90}} The word '''jurocracy''' has also been used by others.{{sfn|Martin|2005|p=xviii}}

== Definitions == === Contrast to extant system === {{multiple image | header = | direction = horizontal | width1 = 118 | image1 = Stanley Reed.jpg | caption1 = Stanley Reed | width2 = 110 | image2 = Albie Sachs1.jpg | caption2 = Albie Sachs }} Sachs and others rejected the idea that the Constitutional Court of South Africa, on which he sat, was a dikastocracy; using the name to denote what they asserted the Court not to be.{{sfn|Bizos|2011|pp=905&ndash;906}} It was used in a 1996 Court opinion that rejected the "horizontal" application (between citizens as opposed to "vertical" application between citizens and the government) of the RSA constitution's Bill of Rights and warned that "horizontal" application would turn the republic into such a dikastocracy.{{sfn|Jeffery|2010|p=49}}

Others have similarly used this as an inverse definition to denote what they assert their form of government is not. Supreme Court of the United States justice Stanley Forman Reed, the last dissenter to be convinced in the decision on ''Brown v. Board of Education'' used kritarchy as the name for the judicial activism that he initially dissented from, asking his clerk (John Fassett) who argued with the direction to write a dissenting opinion whether he (Fassett) favoured a kritarchy.{{sfn|Roberts|Stratton Jr.|1997|p=43}}{{sfn|SCOTUS|1980|p=38}} Fassett was unfamiliar with the word, and Reed told him to look it up.{{sfn|Roberts|Stratton Jr.|1997|p=43}}{{sfn|SCOTUS|1980|p=38}} Fassett could not find it in several dictionaries, finally locating it in the ''Oxford English Dictionary''.{{sfn|Roberts|Stratton Jr.|1997|p=43}}{{sfn|SCOTUS|1980|p=38}}

The actual term that Reed used was "krytocracy" and he described it as a "government by judges."<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Fassett |first1=John |title=Supreme Court Law Clerks' Recollections of Brown v. Board of Education |journal=St. John's Law Review |date=Summer 2004 |volume=78 |issue=3 |page=528 |url=https://scholarship.law.stjohns.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=1296&context=lawreview |access-date=12 December 2023}}</ref>

=== According to van Notten === This form of rule (in the non-Biblical sense) is the case of Somalia, ruled by judges with the polycentric legal tradition of xeer.{{sfn|MacCallum|1998}}{{sfn|Makutchev|2020}}{{sfn|van Notten|2003}} The definition employed by Michael van Notten (based upon one by Frank van Dun{{sfn|van Notten|2005|p=73}}) is not, strictly, that of rule by judges, judges not being a formal political class but rather people selected at random to perform that task ad hoc; but rather is that of a legal and political system whose closest analogue in other societies is that of a system based entirely upon customary rather than statutory law.{{sfn|Tobin|2014|p=73}} George Ayittey referred to this as a "near-Kritarchy".{{sfn|Ayittey|2006|pp=120–123}} Van Notten himself argues that with few exceptions, the system of government which he denotes a kritarchy is "harmonious with the concept of natural law" and "very close to what in philosophy might be called 'the natural order of human beings'".{{sfn|Tobin|2014|p=73}}

=== Heterodox opinions === In the opinion of libertarian anthropologist Spencer McCallum, the kritarchy represents the governance of stateless societies,<ref>{{harvp|MacCallum|1998}}: "A society organized strictly in accordance with the Xeer is technically a “kritarchy,” as opposed to a democracy, theocracy, monarchy, oligarchy, or other form of political government. The term, a little-used nineteenth-century word compounded from the Greek, literally means “rule by judges.” Many stateless societies have been kritarchies, including the well-known example of the Old Testament Jews during the time of the Judges. The proposed free enclaves also would be kritarchies, since they would be founded solely on the principles of successful modern commerce and the traditional Xeer."</ref> explaining that Somali tribal governments were made up of courts and part-time police.<ref>{{harvp|MacCallum|1998}}: "But tribal government remained the government of choice for Somalis. According to my friends, this indigenous government, composed of part-time police and law courts, had been effective during the past seven years in keeping the peace in the rural areas."</ref>

== Potential kritarchies == [[Image:Redwood Castle.jpg|thumb|right|150px|Redwood Castle, County Tipperary, although built by the Normans, was later occupied by the MacEgan juristic family and served as a school of Irish law under them.]] Many legal scholars and commentators have spoken of the potential for systems to move to a form of kritarchy, viewing such in a negative light.<ref>{{harvp|Radlett|Radlett|2012}}; {{harvp|Hatzistergos|2009}}; {{harvp|Morissette|1998}}; {{harvp|Weinstein|2004|pp=101–102}}; {{harvp|Thapar|2023|p=803}}</ref> A specific example is the Constitution of the Philippines which allows for direct rule by the Supreme Court should the Executive commit a "grave abuse", which is not defined in law.{{sfn|Orosa|2004}}

== Historical examples == [[File:Giudicati of Sardinia 1.svg|thumb|right|150px|The Judicates (Sardinian: {{lang|sc|Judicadus}}) of Sardinia.]] Ireland had a system of kritarchy from the 5th century BCE to the 5th century CE under the Brehon Law, the Brehons being the class of judges keeping an oral tradition of secular law from pre-Christian Ireland.{{sfn|Gorman|1913}}{{sfn|IC|2017}}{{sfn|Ayittey|2006|p=305}} A kritarchy system was also present in medieval Ireland until the 13th century.{{sfn|van Notten|2005|pp=187–196}}{{sfn|Ayittey|2006|p=305}}

The Icelandic Commonwealth between the 9th and 13th century has been labelled as a kritarchy by David D. Friedman and Einar Olgeirsson.{{sfn|Friedman|1979|pp=399–415}}{{sfn|Olgeirsson|1971|p=44}} Richard Cole additionally highlights how in the language of the {{lang|is|Völuspá}} from the {{lang|is|Snorra Edda}} composed during this period described the rule of the Æsir less in royal terminology and more as judges ruling by law.{{sfn|Cole|2020|pp=33–34}}

The Sardinian medieval kingdoms, also called the Judicates, from the 10th to 14th centuries.{{sfn|Solmi|1965}} These kingdoms were ruled by {{lang|sc|judike}} (judges).

Frisia, at the end of the Frisian freedom, in the 16th century had a system of kritarchy.{{sfn|van Notten|2005|pp=187-196}}{{sfn|Ayittey|2006|p=305}}

Islamic Courts Union from 1994 to 2006 in Somalia, following the legal system of xeer.{{sfn|Harvard Divinity School|2016}}

== In popular culture == * The fictional regime of Mega-city One, the focus of setting for the Judge Dredd franchise, can be described as a kritarchy.<ref>{{harvp|Molcher|2017}}; {{harvp|Olson|2020}}; ''2000 AD'' #2118; ''2000 AD'' #1744</ref>

== References == {{reflist|25em}}

=== Reference bibliography === {{refbegin|colwidth=30em|indent=yes}} * {{cite book |last1=Ayittey |first1=George |author1-link=George Ayittey |title=Indigenous African Institutions: 2nd Edition |edition=2nd |publisher=BRILL |year=2006 |isbn=9789047440031 |language=en}} * {{cite book |last1=Bizos |first1=George |author1-link=George Bizos |title=Odyssey to Freedom |publisher=Penguin Random House South Africa |year=2011 |isbn=9781415203071 |language=en}} * {{cite book |last=Cole |first=Richard |date=2020 |chapter=Æsirism: The Impossibility of Ideological Neutrality in Snorra Edda |title=Old Norse Myths as Political Ideologies. Critical Studies in the Appropriation of Medieval Narratives |editor1-first=Nicolas |editor1-last=Meylan |editor2-first=Lukas |editor2-last=Rosli |publisher=Brepols |isbn=978-2503588216 |pages=27–46}} * {{cite book |last1=Cornell |first1=Drucilla |author1-link=Drucilla Cornell |title=Albie Sachs and Transformation in South Africa |first2=Karin |last2=van Marle |publisher=CRC Press |year=2014 |isbn=9781317819585 |language=en}} * {{cite journal |last1=Friedman |first1=David D. |author1-link=David D. Friedman |url=http://www.daviddfriedman.com/Academic/Iceland/Iceland.html |title=Private creation and enforcement of law: a historical case |access-date=12 February 2017 |journal=The Journal of Legal Studies |date=March 1979 |volume=8 |issue=2 |pages=399–415 |doi=10.1086/467615 |s2cid=59062557 |language=en |url-access=subscription}} * {{cite journal |last=Gorman |first=M.J. |author-link=Michael J. Gorman |url=http://scholarship.law.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=7288&context=penn_law_review |title=The Ancient Brehon Laws of Ireland |journal=University of Pennsylvania Law Review |volume=61 |issue=4 |date=February 1913 |access-date=12 February 2017 |language=en}} * {{cite web |author=Harvard Divinity School |url=https://rlp.hds.harvard.edu/faq/islamic-courts-union |title=The Islamic Courts Union |date=2016 |publisher=Harvard Divinity School |access-date=30 September 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200730042913/https://rlp.hds.harvard.edu/faq/islamic-courts-union |archive-date=30 July 2020 |language=en}} * {{cite journal |last1=Hatzistergos |first1=John |author1-link=John Hatzistergos |url=https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A306598789/AONE?u=tou&sid=bookmark-AONE&xid=6e052a60 |title=A charter of rights or a charter of wrongs? |access-date=1 October 2021 |journal=Original Law Review |volume=5 |number=3 |date=July 2009 |pages=85 |publisher=Sandstone Academic Press |language=en}} * {{cite encyclopedia |last1=Hellweg |first1=Paul |encyclopedia=The Wordsworth Book of Intriguing Words |article=kritarchy |series=Wordsworth reference |publisher=Wordsworth |year=1993 |isbn=9781853263125 |language=en}} * {{cite book |last1=Hirschl |first1=Ran |author1-link=Ran Hirschl |title=Towards Juristocracy: The Origins and Consequences of the New Constitutionalism |publisher=Harvard University Press |date=30 September 2007 |isbn=9780674025479 |language=en}} * {{cite web |ref={{harvid|IC|2017}} |url=http://www.irishcentral.com/roots/irelands-brehon-laws-were-before-their-time-100680164-237762681 |title=Ireland's Brehon Laws were way ahead of their time |date=14 July 2016 |access-date=12 February 2017 |work=IrishCentral |archive-date=13 February 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170213090322/http://www.irishcentral.com/roots/irelands-brehon-laws-were-before-their-time-100680164-237762681 |language=en}} * {{cite book |last1=Jeffery |first1=Anthea |title=Chasing the rainbow: South Africa's move from Mandela to Zuma |publisher=South African Institute of Race Relations |year=2010 |isbn=9781869825829 |language=en}} * {{cite web |last1=MacCallum |first1=Spencer Heath |author1-link=Spencer McCallum |url=http://www.independent.org/publications/article.asp?id=126 |title=A Peaceful Ferment in Somalia |date=1 June 1998 |magazine=The Freeman |publisher=Foundation for Economic Education |language=en |via=Independent Institute |access-date=25 May 2022 |archive-url= |archive-date=}} * {{cite journal |last1=Makutchev |first1=Alexander V. |url=https://journals.ssau.ru/jjsu/article/view/8348 |title=Kritarchy as a special form of state (on the example of Somalia) |access-date=27 September 2021 |journal=Juridical Journal of Samara University |publisher=Samara National Research University |date=2020 |volume=6 |issue=4 |pages=17–25 |doi=10.18287/2542-047X-2020-6-4-17-25 |doi-access=free |language=en}} * {{cite book |last1=Martin |first1=Robert I. |title=The Most Dangerous Branch: How the Supreme Court of Canada Has Undermined Our Law and Our Democracy |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IUjo1-nxepQC&dq=Kritarchy&pg=PR7 |publisher=McGill-Queen's University Press |date=2005 |isbn=978-0773529175 |language=en |via=Google Books}} * {{cite web |last=Molcher |first=Michael |author-link=Michael Molcher |url=https://www.politics.co.uk/comment-analysis/2017/03/10/the-politics-of-judge-dredd |title=The politics of Judge Dredd |work=politics.co.uk |date=10 March 2017 |access-date=16 June 2020 |language=en}} * {{cite journal |last1=Morissette |first1=Yves-Marie |title=Canada as a post-modern Kritarchy |journal=Australian Law Journal |volume=72 |date=1998 |language=en}} * {{cite book |last1=Olgeirsson |first1=Einar |author1-link=:is:Einar Olgeirsson |year=1971 |title=Från ättegemenskap till klasstat |language=sv |trans-title=From family to class |translator1-first=Cilla |translator1-last=Johnson |location=Stockholm |publisher=Pan}} * {{cite web |last=Olson |first=Matthew A. |url=https://www.chaoticanwriter.com/worldbuilding-36-types-of-government-part-2/ |title=Worldbuilding: 36 Types of Government (Part 2) |website=Chatoicanwriter |date=5 July 2020 |access-date=5 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210505142911/https://www.chaoticanwriter.com/worldbuilding-36-types-of-government-part-2/ |archive-date=5 May 2021 |url-status=live}} * {{cite journal |last=Orosa |first=Theoben Jerdan C. |url=http://www.ateneolawjournal.com/main/varticle/48 |title=Constitutional Kritarchy Under the Grave Abuse Clause |journal=Ateneo Law Journal |volume=49 |issue=2 |date=2004 |access-date=27 September 2021 |language=en |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210927123407/http://www.ateneolawjournal.com/main/varticle/48 |archive-date=27 September 2021 |url-status=dead}} * {{cite web |last1=Radlett |first1=Susan |last2=Radlett |first2=David |url=https://kar.kent.ac.uk/56189/2/A%20response%20to%20the%20Commission%20on%20a%20Bill%20of%20Rights%20Second%20Consultation.pdf |title=A response to the Commission on a Bill of Rights Second Consultation |date=17 September 2012 |access-date=27 September 2021 |language=en}} * {{cite book |last1=Roberts |first1=Paul Craig |author1-link=Paul Craig Roberts |title=The New Color Line: How Quotas and Privilege Destroy Democracy |first2=Lawrence M. |last2=Stratton Jr. |publisher=Regnery Publishing |year=1997 |isbn=9780895264237 |language=en}} * {{cite book |last=Solmi |first=A. |title=Studi storici sulle istituzioni della Sardegna nel Medioevo |trans-title=Historical studies on Sardinian institutions in the Middle Ages |language=it |location=Cagliari |date=1965 |publisher=Società storica sarda}} * {{cite book |ref={{harvid|SCOTUS|1980}} |chapter=In Memoriam, Honorable Stanley Forman Reed |title=Proceedings of the Bar and Officers of the Supreme Court of the United States |publisher=Supreme Court of the United States |year=1980 |language=en}} * {{cite journal |last=Thapar |first=Amul |date=2023 |title=Justice Alito: A Justice of Foxes and Hedgehogs |journal=Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy |volume=46 |issue=The Jurisprudence of Justice Samuel Alito |url=https://journals.law.harvard.edu/jlpp/wp-content/uploads/sites/90/2023/10/19_46_S_Thapar.pdf |pages=801–824}} * {{cite book |last=Tobin |first=Brendan |title=Indigenous Peoples, Customary Law and Human Rights &mdash; Why Living Law Matters |series=Routledge Studies in Law and Sustainable Development |publisher=Routledge |year=2014 |isbn=9781317697541 |language=en}} * {{cite journal |last1=van Notten |first1=Michael |author1-link=Michael van Notten |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40761688 |title=From Nation-State to Stateless Nation: The Somali Experience |access-date=27 September 2021 |journal=Africa: Rivista trimestrale di studi e documentazione dell'Istituto italiano per l'Africa e l'Oriente |date=2003 |volume=58 |issue=2 |pages=147–157 |publisher=Istituto Italiano per l'Africa e l'Oriente |jstor=40761688 |language=en}} * {{cite book |last1=van Notten |first1=Michael |author1-link=Michael van Notten |title=The Law of the Somalis: A Stable Foundation for Economic Development in the Horn of Africa |editor-first1=Spencer Heath |editor-last1=MacCallum |isbn=9781569022504 |lccn=2005018531 |year=2005 |publisher=Red Sea Press |chapter=Appendix: What is Kritarchy? (Frank van Dun) |chapter-url=http://voluntaryist.com/forthcoming/kritarchy.html |language=en}} * {{cite journal |last1=Weinstein |first1=Jack B. |author1-link=Jack B. Weinstein |url=https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1905&context=ulj |title=Every Day Is a Good Day for a Judge to Lay Down His Professional Life for Justice |access-date=3 December 2021 |journal=Fordham Urban Law Journal |date=December 2004 |volume=32 |issue=1 |pages=101–138 |publisher=Fordham University School of Law |language=en}} * {{cite encyclopaedia |last1=Zettler |first1=Howard G. |encyclopaedia=-Ologies and -isms: a thematic dictionary |article=kritarchy |publisher=Gale Research Company |year=1978 |isbn=9780810310148 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/ologiesismsthema0000unse |language=en}} {{refend}}

Category:Oligarchy Category:Ancient Israel and Judah Category:Religion and politics