Unveiling the Conxceptual Dimension of the Kuwaiti Procedural Framework on Limiting Debtors' Freedom of Movement: A Study in Fidelity to Comparative Context

• Pages: 499-522
• Date: 01 October 2024
• Published date: 01 October 2024
• Author: Ali Alhusainan
• Subject Matter: Derecho Internacional

e Indonesian Journal of International & Comparative Law

ISSN: 2338-7602; E-ISSN: 2338-770X

http://www.ijil.org

© 2021 e Institute for Migrant Rights Press

unvEiling thE ConCEptual

diMEnsion of thE Kuwaiti

proCEdural fraMEworK on liMiting

dEBtors’ frEEdoM of MovEMEnt

A sTudy in fideliTy To comPArATive conTexT

Ali Alhusainan

Kuwait University College of Law

E-mail: ali-alhusainan@hotmail.com

In spite of its nature as a primarily procedural legislation and hence devoid of

any explicit philosophical assumptions, this paper argues that the Kuwaiti pro-

cedural framework on limiting debtors’ freedom of movement is also part of the

nation’s entrenched vision of human ourishing. In other words, the main objec-

tive of this paper is not merely to produce an articulation of the explicit meaning

of a statutory law, namely Kuwait’s procedural framework. By articulating the

framework’s theoretical import, this paper presents a rst attempt to exercising

a “law in context” approach in Kuwait, a non-Western jurisdiction. In so doing,

the paper’s ambitious objective is to synthesize interdisciplinary insights into the

analysis of procedural law. Ultimately, with its comparative approach, this paper

will also contribute signicantly to the renement of theoretical discourse on

Middle Eastern legal traditions, a discourse that has so far received only scant

attention.

Keywords: law reform, Middle East, law in context, freedom movement, contractual

obligations.

X Indonesian Journal of Inter nat ional & Comparative Law 499-522 (October 2024)

500

Alhusainan

“Let us remember . . . that political institutions . . . are the work of

men – owe their origin and their existence to human will. Men did

not wake on a summer morning and nd them sprung up. Neither

do they resemble trees, which, once planted, ‘are aye growing’ while

men ‘are sleeping.’ In every stage of their existence they are made

what they are by human voluntary agency. Like all things, therefore,

which are made by men, they may be either well or ill-made;

judgment and skill may have been exercised in their production, or

the reverse of these.” John Stuart Mill (1806 – 1873)1

INTRODUCTION

In this paper, I attempt to expound the cultural premise behind Ku-

wait’s procedural framework or Law of the Debtor travel bans (here-

inaer “Kuwait’s procedural framework”). In that sense, this will be an

interpretive exercise in articulating the implicit narrative behind the

appeal of Kuwait’s procedural framework. In so doing, this paper will

present an elucidation of the theoretical import of Kuwait’s procedural

framework. As an eort to elucidate the underpinning implicit theory

behind Kuwait’s procedural framework, this paper instantiates a form

of interpretive approach. is is an approach that recognizes the im-

portance of norms and values in human action, based on the assump-

tion that “human beings act toward things on the basis of the meaning

that the things have for them.”2 is is a sociological or anthropological

assumption about the nature of the human capacity to act and the na-

ture of human communication.3 Its ultimate goal is to produce a “new”

interpretation of Kuwait’s self-understanding (or theory) of this proce-

dural framework in particular and law in general with new eyes.

Following in the footsteps of Oscar G. Chase, this paper posits that

1. J S M, C  R G 12

(1882).

2. H B, T M P  S

I,  S I: P 

M 1, 2 (1986).

3. H J  W K, S  T: T I

L 131 (Alex Skinner trans., 2009).