The Economics of Ottoman Justice

Metin Coşgel is Professor of Economics and Department Head of the Department of Economics at the University of Connecticut. He has published widely on the Ottoman Empire. Boğaç Ergene is Associate Professor of History at the University of Vermont. He is the author of Local Court, Provincial Society and Justice in the Ottoman Empire (2003).

• Introduction; Part I. Methodology and Background: 1. Quantitative approaches in research on Ottoman legal practice; 2. Kastamonu: the town and its people; Part II. The Court and Court Clients: 3. The court, its actors, and its archive; 4. Court use: a preliminary analysis; Part III. To Settle or Not to Settle: 5. Dispute resolution in Ottoman courts of law; 6. Trial vs settlement: an economic approach; 7. Which disputes went to trial? Case-type- and period-based analyses; Part IV. Litigations: 8. Rules and tools of litigation; 9. Economics of litigation: what affects success at trial?; 10. Who won? Case-type- and period-based analyses; Conclusion.

'Metin Coşgel and Boğaç Ergene have written a well-researched book that pushes the boundary of interdisciplinary scholarship. Their history is informed by economics, and their economics is generalized via history. It is an impressive and difficult methodology to pull off, yet Coşgel and Ergene have done just this.' Jared Rubin, EH.Net