The Blood Feud between Restorative Justice, Misunderstanding and Misuse

Prof. Dr. Gelanda Shkurtaj

doi:10.5771/9783748948001

Summary

Albania keeps customary traditions, as old as the Roman Law, codified in a book called “Kanun”. Inside this code, there are many legal institutions, among which a particular chapter defined as “Blood Feud”. The legislative body codified in “Kanun”, especially the blood feud, continues to conflict with the state criminal system. According to Weber and Durkheim, blood feud has been considered as the regulatory instrument to keep the public order in the societies where the state and the state institutions were not yet existent. When societies move to the “organic solidarity”, the blood feud is usually limited or completely cancelled. Hereby arises the dilemma that this monograph aims to answer: why in a modern state the institution of blood feud still is pursued, persists, and is equalled with the state justice system.

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Bibliographic data

Publication year: 2025
Publication date: 16.09.2025
ISBN-Print: 978-3-7560-1909-0
ISBN-Online: 978-3-7489-4800-1
Publisher: Nomos, Baden-Baden
Language: English
Pages: 240
Product type: Book Titles

Preface No access Pages 1 - 10
1. The purpose of writing about Kanun and the perspective No access
2. A different book to the readers No access
3. The ethical and legal structure of the blood feud No access
4. The “mea culpa” versus Kanun No access
1. Culture in modern society. Is blood feud primitive? No access
2. The concept of blood feud in Albanian customary law No access
3. General knowledge about blood feud and Kanun No access
4. The reason to study blood feud in Kanun No access
5. Objective and subjective aspects of blood feud No access
6. Why the blood feud in a monograph? No access
7. An historical error toward Kanun in Albania No access
8. Reconciliation theory. Finding the roots of conflict is the best cure for bigots No access
1. The anthropology “in” and “out” house regarding blood feud conceptuality No access
2. The ethnographic facts that would be needed to study and better understand the concept of right No access
3. The blood feud in legal culture and pluralism No access
4. The traditional versus the modernism No access
5. The societies of blood feud and their social structure No access
6. Kanun’s norms and the legal power No access
7. State positive law and blood feud constitute a binary system of justice No access
1. Weber’s and Durkheim's theories of blood feud and modernity No access
2. Monopoly of legal violence on Weber's conceptuality No access
3. Max Weber analysis on Blood Feud No access
4. Émile Durkheim's sociology. The theory of mechanical and organic solidarity in blood feud No access
5. Durkheim vs. Weber on Blood Feud No access
6. Albanian Ethnographic studies and the theoretical debate on blood feud No access
1. Blood Feud in the Kanun of Lekë Dukagjini No access
2. Principle "Blood Follows the Finger" No access
3. The Blood Guarantor and Mediator in a Blood feud No access
4. Murder for Adultery According to this Kanun No access
5. Killing of the Son by the Father No access
6. Incest and Blood Feud No access
7. Honor and Blood Feud No access
8. Truce in the blood feud No access
9. Murder in Kanun No access
10. Role of the woman in blood feud No access
11. Ostracism: Social exclusion No access
12. Reconciliation No access
13. Blood Feud in Lekë Dukagjini Kanun (Puka's variant) No access
14. Liability No access
1. Introduction No access
2. Blood feud in the Kanun of Labëria No access
3. Blood feud in the Kanun of Skanderbeg No access
4. Murder No access
5. Right to Avenge Blood No access
6. Blood follows the finger. The finger that pulls the trigger No access
7. The blood of good and bad alike No access
8. Blood is never taken for fault. Blood cannot be converted into a fine No access
9. Involuntary manslaughter No access
10. Ambush No access
11. The house in blood No access
12. Assembly of blood reconciliation. Guarantors of the assembly No access
13. Blood reconciliation and blood guarantors No access
14. Blood meal and the cross over the door No access
15. Introduction to the Kanuns of Luma and Benda No access
16. Blood Feud in the Kanun of Luma No access
17. Behavior in murder No access
18. Desecration of the victim’s body No access
19. Occupying the Tower of in-blood foeman No access
20. Involuntary manslaughter No access
21. Crimes within the family No access
22. The blood feud pushed from bad people No access
23. Blood Feud in the Kanun of Benda No access
24. Ambush and Ambusher No access
25. The gun brings the blood to your door No access
26. Accomplice No access
27. Involuntary manslaughter No access
28. Due announcement No access
29. Incurring the blood feud No access
30. Who has the right to avenge Blood? No access
31. Who is excluded from blood avenge? No access
32. Blood negotiators No access
33. Blood reconciliation No access
34. Blood guarantors No access
35. Meal of blood No access
36. Blood Feud in the Kanun of Dibra No access
37. Ambush No access
38. Murderer No access
39. Truce in blood feud No access
40. Blood follows the finger No access
41. Involuntary manslaughter, for personal honor and legal self-defense No access
42. Blood is neither forgive nor sold No access
1. The state political attitude versus Kanun and the blood feud No access
2. An historical approach to blood feud and blood revenge No access
3. The Albanian independent state and the use of blood feud and blood revenge No access
4. Blood feud during the Second World War No access
5. The dictatorial state in front of blood feud. The theory of power against self-justice No access
6. A forgotten history or a return to traditions? Post dictatorial policy and blood feud No access
7. A short comparative statistic on murders for blood revenge and murders for blood avenge in the court evidence No access
1. The rule of law and the position of the blood feud No access
2. The perception of blood feud in the common knowledge of the state and the individuals No access
3. Blood feud structure beyond the cliché’ No access
4. Ethnography of blood feud in daily life No access
5. A case of the murder committed by a minor No access
6. Shooting dead a woman is not allowed by the Kanun No access
7. Does Kanun recognize the murder of a priest? The murder of the cleric in Shkodra as a misinterpretation of Kanun No access
1. The restorative justice in the culture and content of the Kanun No access
2. The current perception of Kanun and blood feud in Albania No access
3. Should blood feud exist as a rival to state power, or does the latter encourage blood feud existence? Thesis and hypothesis. No access
1. ANNEX 1 No access
Bibliography No access Pages 233 - 240