Anaylsis of the Article The Role of Custom and Traditional Leaders Under the Yap Constitution by Brian Tamaha

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In the article “The role of custom and traditional leaders under the Yap constitution”, Brian Tamaha explains the various traditions as well as the Yap legal system. The constitution of Yap consists of a common legislature (executive, judiciary) with a fourth branch dedicated solely for traditional leaders. Tradition and customs are how rules are made and how there abided by, in every legal system, there is a set or rules which direct people on how to live. Despite all the foreign pressure Yap has been through, Yaps culture has proved resilient (4). This essay will illustrate Yap’s legal system with accordance to Hart’s theory of a legal system, and will answer questions concerning the rule of recognition and how the Yapese live life on means of extreme inequality and injustice, but seem to put tradition and custom above it.
Yap is a traditionally garbed state, it sustained numerous changes of authorities yet it still maintained it cultural presence. Yap is a society that has accepted the coexistence of tradition and western living (). A dominant feature in Yap culture is that caste system, the caste system is divided into 9 sections, 4 being the lowest and 5 the highest. The high caste are superior to the low caste they are owed labor from the lower caste without compensation(4) in addition to living in the most productive sections of the islands. The caste system is unequal, but the Yapese is content with it as it’s a part of their long history of culture and customs. Yap’s constitution is deriv...

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...nction of endorsing laws and overseeing the legal system of the community. However, before these laws gain recognition, they must be authorized by the chiefs whose main task like I affirmed is for laws to be constant with the Yapese traditions.
By answering this question, I will now begin to answer the second question, Will Yap’s rule of recognition be able to carry out the functions that a rule of recognition must serve? This question will rejoinder two critical components, Hart’s legal theory and is Yap’s tradition reliability. Hart argues that laws are certified ways of life when considered suitable for people to live by; the Yapese have always underwent constant pressure to adapt to foreign ways of life, but tradition and constant remained resistant.
According to Hart the rule of recognition must fulfill three functions; to establish a trial for binding law

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