This forthcoming article by SHARIAsource Senior Scholar Mohammad Fadel is due to be published in an upcoming special issue of the International Journal of Constitutional Law. It describes how the development of laws in Egypt through a “deliberative political process” has been negatively impacted by the country’s top court: “The Sounds of Silence: The Supreme … Continue reading Recent Scholarship: Fadel and Johnson on Constitutionalism
The right to counsel is one of the constituent elements of a fair trial.[1] Iran’s judicial system has long grappled with the question whether, to ensure the basic rights of defendants, they must have unqualified access to an attorney in criminal investigations, especially for serious felonies such as national security crimes. In this post, through analyzing … Continue reading Right to Counsel and the Problem of Distrust
Pakistan editor Zubair Abbasi examines the legality of surrogacy under Islamic law. In Farooq Siddiqui v Mst. Farzana Naheed, decided on 16 February 2017, the Federal Shariat Court (FSC) determined the legality of surrogacy under Islamic law. In this case note, Abbasi analyzes the judgment of the FSC on surrogacy. Based on this analysis, he argues that this judgment signifies a historical … Continue reading Federal Shariat Court of Pakistan on Surrogacy: From Judicial Islamization of Laws to Judicial Legislation
Nathan Brown, Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at the Elliot School of International Affairs at George Washington University, asserts that "Arab constitutions are not abnormally religious," even though they legally integrate religion in different ways. "Religion appears in the constitutions of the Arab world, almost all with Muslim majorities, in a variety of … Continue reading Comparing the Religion-State Divide in the Arab World: Constitutions
Islamic law is before the Supreme Court of India again, with the question of whether triple-ṭalāq is a valid way of dissolving a marriage: by a man simply pronouncing that his wife is divorced by saying that word three times. To understand where the Court might be going requires a bit of background. Following the … Continue reading The Danial Latifi Case and the Indian Supreme Court’s Balancing Act
Amidst the tensions raised by Islamic constitutional states as they deal with non-Muslim minorities, worth considering is how Muslim-majority states have resolved the issue in the past. Morocco editor Ari Schriber considers the political ramifications of Islamic laws governing religious minorities in an episode that faced Morocco as it gained independence: Morocco's 1962 Baha'i Affair. Morocco's then-recent independence heralded a … Continue reading The Limits of State Religion and Non-Muslim Minorities: The Moroccan ‘Baha’i Affair’ of 1962
