The 1998 Michel Seurat grant was awarded to Emmanuel Bonne for his research work on “Justice in Syria: institutions, power and society”. This distinction was conferred upon him by Marie-Claude Maurel, director of the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, on Tuesday, January 12th, 1999, during a ceremony at the CNRS headquarters in Paris.

The Michel Seurat grant was created in 1988 “to honor the memory of this CNRS researcher, a specialist in Islamic studies, who died in tragic circumstances. Each year, this grant provides financial support to a young French or Near-Eastern researcher, in the aim of promoting the mutual understanding and knowledge of French and Arab societies. Candidates must be working on themes related to “the contemporary cultures or societies of the Near-East”.
Emmanuel Bonne is a researcher at the CERMOC (Centre d’Etudes et de Recherches sur le Moyen-Orient Contemporain) in Beyrouth. He is working on a thesis on “Justice in Syria: institutions, power and society”, under the supervision of Bernard Botiveau, CNRS research director, in the framework of the doctoral program “Arab and Muslim world”, at the Institut d’Etudes Politiques in Aix-en-Provence.
His research is devoted to the juridical and political structure of the justice system in Syria. He has studied the development of law and of judicial institutions since the Ottoman reforms of the 19th century, and analyzed how legal mechanisms were imported from other countries, the underlying political aims and the development of a national legal system after Independence. In addition, he has studied how the modern Syrian political system was fostered by the development of law schools, legals unity and the gradual impoverishment of judges. His monograph on the Damas palace of justice shows the conditions in which judges practice their profession.

Emmanuel Bonne observes that the courts often serve as official institutions legitimizing the social system; he analyzes the permanency of common law and the increasing recourse to community-based solutions to social conflicts.

Department contact: Annick TERNIER
Department of Humanities and Social Sciences
Tel: 33 1 44 96 43 10