Authoritarian Pluralism: Why Does the Chechen Government Promote Customary Law and Sharia?

press release: 4:00 pm, (refreshments served beginning at 3:45), 206 Ingraham Hall

Egor Lazarev, assistant professor of political science at the University of Toronto.

This presentation will uncover the logic of promoting customary law and Sharia in Ramzan Kadyrov’s postwar Chechnya. First, it will analyze the costs and benefits of promoting non-state legal orders rooted in custom and religion for the ruler. Second, it will explore how the conflict affected these costs and benefits.