The substantive criminal law is contained in the Sudan Penal Code, which is a copy of the Indian Penal Code, with such modifications as the circumstances of the country appeared to demand. The civil courts in each province are those of the Mudir and of the subordinate magistrates. The procedure is borrowed in part from that in Indian provinces which do not possess a High Court, and in part from the Ottoman and African Orders in Council. The parties appear before the judge, who settles the issues to be tried before trying the case. Every court has power to sit with assessors, who, in commercial cases, are frequently of considerable assistance. Appeals lie to the Mudir, or from the court of the Mudir to that of the Judicial Commissioner. This system has been somewhat modified by the appointment of four civil judges who are trained lawyers. Wherever there is a civil judge, he has all the powers, civil and criminal, of the Mudir, and ordinarily takes all the civil and the more responsible criminal work of that officer. A civil judge has now sat continuously for the last three years at Khartoum, where all the principal merchants reside. A system of circuits will probably be shortly instituted in the outlying provinces; in the meantime provision is made for civil disputes of special importance or complexity in those provinces by a section which authorises their transfer, by consent of the parties, to the court of the Judicial Commissioner. It is very possible that the latter court may shortly be replaced by a bench of civil judges. It was not thought advisable to create a body of substantive civil law at a time when all that was known of the customs of the people was that they probably differed from those of any country whose legislation could have been taken as a precedent. Section 3 of the Civil Justice Ordinance provides for the recognition of customary law, so far as applicable and not repugnant to good conscience, in matters of succession, etc.; and Section 4 provides for the administration of “justice, equity, and good conscience,” a phrase which has stereotyped custom in large parts of the east, and filled up the interstices with the principles of English Law. In commercial matters in the Sudan the judges have inclined to interpret it as implying the obligation to recognise the principles of Egyptian Commercial Law in cases in which the law of civilised countries is not in agreement. The above-mentioned Codes are applied wherever they may be put in force by the Governor-General, and they have been gradually extended to all parts of the Sudan, except the Bahr El Ghazal. In the more backward provinces in the south, where officers are scattered, advantage has to be taken of a provision that they shall be applied with such modifications, not affecting the substance, as the circumstances may require.[12] [Sidenote: Mehkema Sharia.]