Richard Pennell studied Arabic and Spanish and Islamic History in Britain. He has taught the history of the Middle East and North Africa at the University of Melbourne since 1997, after earlier posts in Morocco, Libya, Turkey, Singapore and Kenya. He has published widely on North African history, most recently Banning Islamic books in Australia (Melbourne University Press, 2011). This current article is part of a long research interest in cross-cultural legal trials, a subject on which he has already published several articles.