Comparative evolution of inheritance law: Role of economic incentives and legal pluralism

Inheritance codes in the Ottoman Empire and British India followed dramatically different paths of evolution.  In the Ottoman Empire, Jewish and Islamic inheritance laws borrowed heavily from one another and aspects of both legal systems converged.  In British India, Hindu and Muslim inheritance codes followed separate trajectories and diverged greatly in their evolution.  This work will argue that the differences in evolution of inheritance laws in British India and the Ottoman Empire may be traced to two reasons.  First, the nature of legal pluralism differed: British India did not allow appeals from the court of one religious group to another religious group, whereas this was permitted in the Ottoman Empire.  Second, the structure of economic incentives behind inheritance codes differed in both the Ottoman Empire and British India.  Hindu landowners and businessmen had vested interests in keeping the inheritance codes separate whereas a particular interest group did not benefit from a similar separation of Jewish and Islamic inheritance codes.  This paper will also shed light on the impact of the inheritance codes on the economic life of women in British India and the Ottoman Empire.  Case studies from Ottoman and British records will be presented along with quantitative data.  Finally, this paper will conclude by demonstrating how differences in incentive structures and legal pluralism colluded in causing inheritance laws to evolve differently.