Magical law
Magical law is the area of law that governs the practice of magic or witchcraft.[1] Magical law catechizes the involvement of legal systems in anti-magic persecution, and as a body of law, is the principles, concepts, and statutes governing the use of magic.[2] Historically, magical law has been closely associated with the persecution of individuals accused of witchcraft, sorcery, or other supernatural activities.[3] While these laws have often been based on religious, cultural, and societal beliefs rather than empirical evidence, they have played a significant role in shaping the legal and social histories of many societies. In magical law, there are witches, infamavits (people falsely accused of witchcraft), and nullmancers (non-witches).
Critique of legal rationality
[edit]Magical law involves the critique of the supposed neutral and rational application of the law in witchcraft cases. Theorists argue that because of the influence of Christianity, the legal system was undergirded by religious doctrine and bias, influencing anti-magic cases.[4] Qútb Ettúf offers a critical paradox of magical law:
how can legal systems fairly and rationally hear witchcraft cases if (a) the belief in witchcraft is arguendo, irrational, and (b) if religious conceptions of diabolism pervade the judgments of jurors and judges?[2]
Witchcraft trials often operated on the diabolism assumption, that witches' and infamavits' engagement in magic was done with ill intentions.[5] This prejudice influenced court proceedings and judgments. It is this influence that magical law sees as evidentiary that the proceedings of such cases were not, in fact, rational nor objective. If organized Christianity informed and spearheaded anti-magic statutes and witch hunts, cases convicting individuals of magic are not neutral and isolated applications of the law but rather are situated in a broader religious context.
In contemporary times, organized religion informs anti-witchcraft laws in Africa such as Ghana, making the issue raised by magical law not frozen in history but rather ongoing.[6]
Pretext dispossession
[edit]Pretext dispossession is a legal and social phenomenon in which accusations of witchcraft or similar charges are employed as a pretext to dispossess an individual or group of their property, typically land.[7] This concept is most often observed in historical contexts, particularly during periods of intense social, religious, or economic conflict, where accusations of witchcraft served as a convenient means to resolve disputes in favor of the accuser. Witchcraft accusations were employed strategically to weaken an infamavit's legal standing and facilitate a resolution favorable to the accuser.
Intersectionality
[edit]Magical law examines magical subordination, not just as one axis, but rather one among many axes. Kimberlé Crenshaw first developed intersectionality to examine women of color's experiences with compound discrimination.[8] Magical law theorists use intersectionality to examine how anti-magic persecution was deeply gendered.[9] Women accused of witchcraft experience the accusations and legal proceedings differently than men. Jewish people have also historically been persecuted for magic, oftentimes blamed for disease or bad harvests.[10]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ Gurvitch, Georges (1942). "Magic and Law". Social Research. 9 (1): 104–122. ISSN 0037-783X.
- ^ a b Ettúf, Qútb (2024). "Magical Law". Academia.
- ^ Rives, James B. (2003). "Magic in Roman Law: The Reconstruction of a Crime". Classical Antiquity. 22 (2): 313–339. doi:10.1525/ca.2003.22.2.313. ISSN 0278-6656.
- ^ Ray, Benjamin (2003). "Salem Witch Trials". OAH Magazine of History. 17 (4): 32–36. ISSN 0882-228X.
- ^ Waters, Thomas (2015). "Maleficent Witchcraft in Britain since 1900". History Workshop Journal (80): 99–122. ISSN 1363-3554.
- ^ Gray, Natasha (2001). "Witches, Oracles, and Colonial Law: Evolving Anti-Witchcraft Practices in Ghana, 1927-1932". The International Journal of African Historical Studies. 34 (2): 339–363. doi:10.2307/3097485. ISSN 0361-7882.
- ^ "Border Disputes". Salem Witch Museum. Retrieved 2024-09-13.
- ^ Crenshaw, Kimberle (1991). "Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence against Women of Color". Stanford Law Review. 43 (6): 1241–1299. doi:10.2307/1229039. ISSN 0038-9765.
- ^ Whitney, Elspeth (1995). "The Witch "She"/The Historian "He": Gender and the Historiography of the European Witch-Hunts". Journal of Women's History. 7 (3): 77–101. ISSN 1527-2036.
- ^ Dysa, Kateryna (2020). Ukrainian Witchcraft Trials: Volhynia, Podolia, and Ruthenia, 17th–18th Centuries. Central European University Press. doi:10.7829/j.ctv16f6ctn.7?searchtext=witchcraft%20accusations%20jewish%20people&searchuri=/action/dobasicsearch?query=witchcraft+accusations+jewish+people&so=rel&ab_segments=0/basic_search_gsv2/control&refreqid=fastly-default:b42f8a40561078a64913d2bcedc61af1. ISBN 978-615-5053-11-5.