In addition to subject and provenance, this series differs from series “B” in that it concerns justice.
Records produced before 1921, foundation date of the Ministry of Justice, were generated by the “Charaa” section, branch of the « Section d’Etat ». The remaining part of records and files of this series was created by the relevant services of the Ministry of Justice, namely the service charged with the “Charaâ” affairs and more precisely the officers and notaries division. 1923 witnessed the transfer of the records produced since 1881 and relating to justice from Dar El Bey to the headquarters of the Ministry of Justice.

Once there, these records made the object of a new classification system. This system consisted in grouping these records into three sub-series : sub-series B, including records produced before 1923, B2 relating to notaries files and B3 reserved for lawyers.

Files making up the above-mentioned sub-series were regularly transferred to the « Archives générales du gouvernement » (General Archives of Government) once they became non-current. They were preserved and arranged following the “Section d’Etat” classification method within series ‘B’ ignoring the difference between the two series. Moreover, and unlike the other series they were not subjected to any type of processing and were not communicated to the public.

The processing of this series led us to believe that it would be more appropriate to assign it figure 1 = B1 so as to distinguish it from series B as they differ in subject and provenance.

Series ‘B1’ comprises the administrative files relating to the personnel forming the Tunisian justice corps, the “Cadhi” (magistrates), the “mufti”, notaries, lawyers etc.. for the period 1881-1945. This contains full accurate details about the nomination of the « Cadhi » to the “Charaâ” courts, widespread all over the country, their professional activities as well as the appointment of notaries and their revocation. Besides, this series includes files relating to the operating personnel for the “oukils” or lawyers attached to the French courts in Tunisia in addition to some files of legal cases related to “charaâ” such as marriage, divorce, inheritence, the habous etc…

Given the fact that the major part of records relating to the “charaâ” justice disappeared, series ‘B’ represents today the unique fonds available, in addition to some records of the historical series, allowing the study of the “charaâ” justice in Tunisia as a by-gone institution with an important political, economic and social dimension.