The Mixed Courts of Egypt (Arabic: المحاكم المختلطة, transliterated: Al-Maḥākim al-Mukhṭaliṭah, French: Tribunaux Mixtes d'Egypte) were founded in October 1875 by the Khedive Isma'il Pasha.
The 1883 Codes were based on those of 1875, and the judges, mostly Egyptian, tended to follow the Mixed Courts’ interpretation of the law.
Their decisions reflect the human and commercial history of the area, and involved complicated issues of law.
The problems of sovereign immunity, sequestration of enemy property, international banking and maritime commerce were shadowed by the recognition and enforcement of divorces, legitimacy, and marriage contracts affecting people of different religions and nationalities.
In between were a whole range of the usual types of legal disputes, such as trademarks and patents, and industrial injuries, without any developed theories at all that could be drawn upon for inspiration, either from inside or outside the country.
"[4] Well before the closure of the Mixed Courts Abd El-Razzak El-Sanhuri Pasha was appointed as chairman of the Committee set up to draft a new Civil Code.
The judges were not simply technicians, but interpreted rules, customs, and laws to give justice in Egypt.
The 1949 code confirmed or re-established the Islamic viewpoint, and can be seen as influenced by the Mixed Courts jurisprudence only indirectly.
There was a continuous creation, evolution, and progress in the law so that judgments were by no means restricted to simple interpretation of the relevant codes.
The Mixed Courts imposed the rule of law and thus began the transition of Egypt from a feudal country into a modern and structured state, with a legal climate conducive to commercial and social progress.
The Mixed Courts had only lasted for 74 years, an insignificant period of time in comparison to Egyptian history,[according to whom?]
1949 saw the penultimate step in providing Egypt with a unified and modernized system of law, definitely Egyptian but clearly Western influenced.
In the 1920s they had seemed set to endure forever, but by the 1930s rapid and radical political change had sounded a warning note.
In many ways the Mixed Courts had themselves encouraged the critical analysis, close reasoning, and scholarly research that had led to an educated elite of lawyers in Egypt.
Their direct influence has waned and receded, but without their existence and work between 1875 and 1949, and without their conscientious and dedicated development and operation, the Egyptian legal system after the Second World War and until the present day would be quite different.