This system has been somewhat modified by the appointment of four civil judges who are trained lawyers. Wherever there is a civil judge, he has all the powers, civil and criminal, of the Mudir, and ordinarily takes all the civil and the more responsible criminal work of that officer. A civil judge has now sat continuously for the last three years at Khartoum, where all the principal merchants reside. A system of circuits will probably be shortly instituted in the outlying provinces; in the meantime provision is made for civil disputes of special importance or complexity in those provinces by a section which authorises their transfer, by consent of the parties, to the court of the Judicial Commissioner. It is very possible that the latter court may shortly be replaced by a bench of civil judges.

It was not thought advisable to create a body of substantive civil law at a time when all that was known of the customs of the people was that they probably differed from those of any country whose legislation could have been taken as a precedent. Section 3 of the Civil Justice Ordinance provides for the recognition of customary law, so far as applicable and not repugnant to good conscience, in matters of succession, etc.; and Section 4 provides for the administration of “justice, equity, and good conscience,” a phrase which has stereotyped custom in large parts of the east, and filled up the interstices with the principles of English Law.

In commercial matters in the Sudan the judges have inclined to interpret it as implying the obligation to recognise the principles of Egyptian Commercial Law in cases in which the law of civilised countries is not in agreement.

The above-mentioned Codes are applied wherever they may be put in force by the Governor-General, and they have been gradually extended to all parts of the Sudan, except the Bahr El Ghazal. In the more backward provinces in the south, where officers are scattered, advantage has to be taken of a provision that they shall be applied with such modifications, not affecting the substance, as the circumstances may require.[12]

Mehkema Sharia.There are special courts, Mehkema Sharia, for the trial in accordance with Mohammedan Law, of cases between Mohammedans, involving questions of personal status, such as succession, wills, gifts, marriage, divorce, family relations, and also the constitution of charitable endowments (wakf).

The judges of these courts are Mohammedan Sheikhs, either natives of the Sudan or Egyptians; of whom the latter have obtained their training in the Azhar Mosque at Cairo.

The Mehkema Sharia comprise District Courts, which have jurisdiction over one or more Districts, according to the extent and population of the Districts, Province Courts, which act as courts of appeal from the District Courts and have also an original jurisdiction over the district in which they are situated, and a Supreme Court of Appeal situated at Khartoum, consisting of the Grand Kadi of the Sudan, who acts as President, the Mufti, and two judges of appeal.

Though the majority of the inhabitants of the Sudan are followers of the Maliki School of Mohammedan Law, the courts generally, as in Egypt, adopt the jurisprudence of the Hanafi School.

LEGISLATION.

Legislation takes the form of Ordinances, issued by proclamation of the Governor-General. In accordance with Article IV of the Agreement of the 19th January, 1899, between the British and Egyptian Government as to the administration of the Sudan, all such ordinances must be forthwith notified to the British Agent-General in Cairo and the President of the Council of Ministers of His Highness the Khedive. All Ordinances are published in the “Sudan Gazette.”