- In “Inheritance as a God-Given Right: the Debate on the Family Waqf in 20th and 21st Century Saudi Arabia” (Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient), Dominik Krell (University of Oxford) shows that “that while the debate on the family waqf in other parts of the Arab world was dominated by the rise of the modern state, capitalism and European colonialism, the criticism of the family waqf in Saudi Arabia predates these discourses and emerged independently from the thought of Ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb (d. 1792). Subsequent Saudi jurists did not simply repeat Ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb’s critique. Instead, they regularly diverged from it and from the Ḥanbalī school more generally. This challenges conventional descriptions of Saudi jurists as being monochromatically ‘Wahhabi-Hanbali’ in their legal thinking.”
- In “Sharia Courts, Legal Pluralism, and Geopolitical Stability in Nigeria” (Instituto Analisi Relazioni Internazionali Blog), Giovanni Pirozzi (Instituto Analisi Relazioni Internazionali) observes that “sharia courts are at the heart of Nigeria’s legal and social fabric, shaping the country’s governance, stability, and international image. While embedded in the 1999 Constitution, these courts exist in a delicate balance with Nigeria’s secular framework — a balance that can either reinforce federal cohesion or exacerbate societal tensions.”