SCHOLARSHIP ROUNDUP
On Islamic Law
- In “The Secularisation of Islamic Criminal Law and Its Implications for the Protection of Human Rights in Indonesia” (Insani: Jurnal Pranata Sosial Hukum Islam), Imat Hibbatulloh (Yarmouk University) and others argue that the “secularisation of Islamic criminal law in Indonesia is not merely a matter of separating religious norms from the national legal system, but is a crucial arena for the struggle for identity, legitimacy of justice, and the fulfilment of human rights in a pluralistic society.”
- In “Challenges of the Insanity Defence: Legal Perspectives on Mental Illness and Criminality in Brunei’s Dual Legal System” (Manchester Journal of Transnational Islamic Law and Practice), Nehaluddin Ahmad (Universiti Islam Sultan Sharif Ali) and others explore the “tensions between Islamic legal principles and modern mental healthcare” and highlight “procedural overlaps in managing offenders with mental disorders…[and] challenges of integrating Islamic medical ethics into Brunei’s dual legal system.”
On Islam and Data Science
- In “The Zakatability of AI: A Dual Analysis from Sharia and Saudi Law” (Journal of Posthumanism), Saud M. Alholiby Albin Zaid (University of Florida Levin College of Law) and others argue that “Islamic jurisprudence theoretically accommodates AI through two potential pathways: the current owner-attribution model (treating outputs as ‘urūḍ al-tijārah) and a future direct liability model (should AI gain legal personhood, drawing on waqf precedents).”
- In “The Golem, the Djinni, and ChatGPT: Artificial Intelligence and the Islamicate Occult Sciences” (Theology and Science), Amina Inloes (The Islamic College) “examines AI through a classical Islamicate occult paradigm to better grasp what it is, metaphysically speaking, and how developments in AI might outmode some post-Enlightenment worldviews.” [login required]
FIELD GUIDE TO ISLAMIC LAW ONLINE: RECENT SOURCES
The Field Guide to Islamic Law Online is an ever-growing collection of links to hundreds of primary sources and archival collections around the world, online. We recently added new resources to this list:
- The Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia at the University of Tokyo has released the “beta version (public test version) of the new Daiber Collection database, which provides access to approximately 520 Arabic-script manuscripts held by the institute. Nearly two decades have passed since the launch of the original database, and a comprehensive update is now underway to enable more advanced use.”
UPCOMING EVENTS AND OPPORTUNITIES
PIL & Harvard Calendar:
- Talk: “The Taliban Courts in Afghanistan, Waging War by Law,” Adam Baczko, October 9, 2025 @ 4:30pm
Calendar:
- Summer School: Digital Humanities and Islamic Studies, University of Bern, September 1–4, 2025
- Conference: Paris Congress at 125—Comparative Law’s Entanglement with Power from Paris to Today, McGill University, Canada, October 16–18, 2025
- Call for Papers: Faith, Values, and the Rule of Law—An Interdisciplinary Conference, Seton Hall University School of Law, November 1, 2025
- Conference: 5th ACM Conference on Equity and Access in Algorithms, Mechanisms, and Optimization, University of Pittsburgh, November 5–7, 2025
- Conference: ASLH 2025 Annual Meeting, Detroit, MI, November 13–15, 2025
- Conference: “Islam and Artificial Intelligence: Challenges and Opportunities,” North American Association of Islamic and Muslim Studies, November 20, 202
- Conference: International Conference “Poetry and Knowledge,” University of Münster, November 20–22, 2025
- Conference: MESA 2025, Westin Downtown, Washington DC, November 22–25, 2025
- Call for Submissions: Journal of Trends in Intellectual Property Research, Volume 3, Issue 2, December 29, 2025
- Call for Submissions: Journal of Legal Research & Analysis, Volume 3, Issue 2, December 29, 2025
- Conference: Faith, Values, and the Rule of Law—An Interdisciplinary Conference, Seton Hall University School of Law, February February 4–5, 2026