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The Role Of Custom In Canon, Jewish And Islamic Law: Supplemented, Superseded Or Supplanted By Written Law?, Chad G. Marzen

Chad G. Marzen

Custom can be a compelling source of law and supplements, even supersedes, written, codified law in religious traditions. In this essay, I address the relationship between custom and written, codified law in three religious legal traditions: the Roman Catholic Canon Law tradition, Jewish law, and Islamic law.

In the Roman Catholic Canon Law tradition, customary law reflects the values critical to community life and while it cannot contravene divine law, customary law, if reasonable, can become law even if customs contradict written canonical norms. In Jewish law, custom (minhag) is a source of rabbinic law and can even supersede halakhah …