Gypsy Law: Romani Legal Traditions and Culture
Alison Barnes Marquette University Law School, alison.barnes@marquette.edu
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III. ROMANI AND ROMANIYA
Weyrauch describes fundamental values and processes, while
acknowledging the difficulty of defining "Gypsy law" because of the
prolonged separation of various Gypsy groups from one another.5
Establishing some commonality is essential to begin a discussion of the field, yet is inevitably open to criticism from those with more specific,
possibly contradictory experiences. 2 This reader can only report that
the basic discussion and responding commentary is sufficiently detailed
to make a densely packed volume of scholarship; more would be quite
daunting for now. Also, the writers, and this Review, most prominently
take up the marime code that underlies many laws and decisions.
Although Gypsy law exists with regard to property, inheritance,
business, and other components of more familiar bodies of law, the rules
and decisions are not the focus of this study. Rather, perhaps inevitably,
the focus is on more unusual aspects of Gypsy law.27
The general principles of Gypsy law begin with the conviction that
purity (vujo) and pollution (marime) are opposite poles.28 Each adult
person has the potential to cause or avoid pollution by their acts, but
women of child-bearing age have particular power to pollute.29 Vujo and
marime relate to parts of the body, and much to be understood about
Gypsy life and law relates to physical proximity and action." The body
above the waist is considered pure; the body below the waist is impure
and can pollute the pure.
Only the hands may move from the pure to
the impure, and requirements for purification attach to food
preparation, all public and private interaction between the sexes, and
living circumstances generally.' For example, it may cause a state of
marime to be in a room below a woman on the second floor because a
man may be polluted by a woman's impure lower body. 2 Likewise,
bathrooms must be used exclusively by men or women so as to avoid
pollution, therefore dwellings with two bathrooms are preferred.33 Even
to discuss matters regarding the lower body could cause pollution and is considered offensive.34
Interaction with gaje, or non-Gypsies, is likely to be contaminating
because gaje are too ignorant to behave according to rules of decency.35
The operating principle again is that the external world may pollute the
pure inner person.36 The habits of polluted persons might taint an
object's next user, or a dwelling's next inhabitant.37 Thus, some Gypsies
may insist on new sinks and toilets upon moving into a dwelling previously occupied by gaje3 Intense discomfort attaches to a jail
sentence for a Gypsy not because of criminal stigma but because the
inmate will almost certainly be severely polluted.39 Eating is almost
impossible because dishes are not purified in accord with Gypsy practices.40 Being forced to live with non-Gypsies is therefore intensely
miserable.
The rules are enforced by the Gypsy court, or kris, which is called at
need to deal with serious matters of marime or other disruption in the
community.4 Elders are likely to hear the case, and the audience of
adults, mostly males, plays a role by expressing their opinion of the case
as it is presented. The kris is most likely to impose a sentence of
expulsion for a period of time.42
Gypsy law is concerned with crime, but almost exclusively only within the community.43 Gypsy crime, which is widely regarded with
hostility, typically includes theft and fraud. Roma generally find violent crime unacceptable, 5 but swindling the gaje may for some Roma
be a legitimate source of income because the gaje are viewed as "overindulgent
and exploitative."46 This is perhaps the single most prevalent
impression of Roma held by outsiders.
The matter of fortune telling, a standard business of Gypsy women,
provides insight. The court system of the Gypsy community may be
invoked to settle matters of competition between fortune-tellers by
dividing territory, 7 but a question of ethics in the business is of no
interest because customers are gaje. Gypsies do not typically seek
guidance from fortune-tellers, not because they think such perception
does not exist, but because it is risky to presume to know the future. 8
Interestingly, the question of whether a person who believes she is
clairvoyant commits a crime when she tells fortunes remains uncertain
because it may be impossible for such a person to have criminal intent. 9
Fortune-telling may also be more of a practice of advising on, rather
than predicting, the future. In any case, Roma may or may not be aware
of state laws, and may tolerate or violate them.".......
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