A dozen years ago the Afghan men would have been hanged for breaking Taliban decrees against music by playing instruments like the dilruba or tabla.
In 544 Theodore persuaded Justinian to decree against the Three Chapters, a summary of Antiochene doctrine, and undertook to secure the support of the Eastern patriarchs.
Judges will have to measure acts of Parliament and government decrees against the convention's guarantees of free speech, fair procedure and the like.
"Sooner or later they will leave anyway," says the son and spokesman of Ayatollah Sistani, the preeminent Shia scholar in Najaf, denying rumours that his father has decreed jihad against the invaders.
Legislation concerning what may or may not be done on Sunday is as old as the time of the Roman emperor Constantine I, who decreed regulations against Sunday labour in 321.
"Allah decreed the vengeance against you," one thundered.
He sent anchor Kirk Herbstreit into a giggling fit when he decreed, "Never bet against the Cocks.
Although judgment was given in the ordinary manner, the execution of the judgment presented certain difficulties because the courts could not decree execution against the crown and its servants.
In 2001 France decreed slavery a "crime against humanity," and the U.S. Congress formally apologized in 2008 for the "enslavement and racial segregation of African Americans".
