BOOK
Legal History
Advocate Prakash Wasti's book highlights century long legal history of Nepal
By A CORRESPONDENT
Every country has its own history. Being an oldest nation in South Asia, Nepal has gone through various stages of dynastic rules and seen many ups and downs. From early Kirat to Licchivi's and from Thakuri to Malla and Shaha, all dynasties have made some contribution to enrich the history of Nepal.
Hamro Kanooni Itihaska Kehi Jhankiharu
(Some Important Aspects of our Legal History)
Written by: Prakash Wasti
Published by: Pairavi Book House, Putalisadak, Kathmandu, April, 2007
Price: Rs. 250.00
Pages: 260 |
In the course of its long history, the rulers developed a number of directives, orders and rituals to govern the state under certain norms. These include the decree, religious decrees and all those kinds of system, which guided the function of the state.
Nepal's history as an independent and sovereign state is long. According to written available documents, one can trace back up to two centuries. In the past when the state was in the process of evolution, the relations between the citizen and state used to be guided by religious guidelines, orders and other such things.
One can read those kinds of documents in stone sculptures and metal sculptures and some of them are even collected in a written form. Thanks to the hard work of advocate Prakash Wasti, one can read many legal documents in this book.
Based on his long research, advocate Wasti has compiled many interesting documents related to the evolution of legal process in Nepal. Although many books have already been published regarding the historical evolution of Nepal, this is the fist book where one can read Nepal's legal system from Kirat dynasty to the present one.
In the first chapter, Wasti discuses the initial period of Nepalese legal history. One can read some initial development during the Kirat dynasty. In second chapter, the author compiles some interesting documents which showed that Nepal's legal system was much better in early times than any western country.
One of the important parts of this book is that the author translated the observation made by Brian Hodgson on Nepalese legal system. For the students of law, this may help to understand law of modern Nepal.
Hodgson wrote a whole book highlighting the importance of Nepalese legal system in chronological way. Despite its own long legal history, Nepal has hardly attempted to collect all of them in a book so that common Nepalese could have access to their long indigenous legal history.
In other chapter, he also discusses legal system evolved during the Rana regime. Wasti also highlights the evolution of legal process from first Rana prime minister Jung Bahadur to the last prime minister Mohan Sumsher. Along with the court system, he also analyzes the court system in Rana period.
He also collects the list of legal journals published in the country. Not only the ancient and medieval period, Wasti also discusses the legal history following the political change of 1951 up till now. The documents compiled by advocate Wasti are very interesting.
This book is useful for teachers, scholars, students as well as legal practitioners. The introduction of senior advocate and eminent constitution lawyer Kusum Shrestha is another additional feature of this book.
