On Apr 16, Marzieh Tofighi Darian gave a talk on "Judicial Review in Iran: Whose Guardian: Constitution or Sharia?" in which she examined the role of Iran's Guardian Council in evaluating claims of sharīʿa compatibility and constitutional violations. She detailed the Guardian Council’s place in Iran’s constitutional design and the controversies that arise with Parliament … Continue reading Lunch Talk: Judicial Review in Iran
Nadia Marzouki is the author of Islam: An American Religion, published in 2013. She was an Andrew Carnegie Centennial Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Ash Center and a research fellow at HKS’s Belfer Center’s Middle East Initiative in 2017. She is currently a tenured research fellow (Chargée de Recherche) at the CNRS (Centre National de … Continue reading Interview :: The Social-Legal Implications of Islamic Law with Nadia Marzouki, Author of Islam: An American Religion
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
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
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In the “Islamization of Prison Laws” judgment[1] of 2009, the Federal Shariat Court of Pakistan[2] (FSC) expands its original jurisdiction by broadly construing the term “injunctions of Islam.”[3] It construes the term to both include general Islamic principles and “the letter and the spirit” of said principles. This latter construction also gives the FSC … Continue reading Pakistan’s Federal Shariat Court and the Islamization of Prison Laws Judgment of 2009: Continued Expansion of Jurisdiction
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 Commentary :: The Danial Latifi Case and the Indian Supreme Court’s Balancing Act
The Federal Sharia Court (FSC) of Pakistan has used Islamic criminal law (hudud) cases to expand its jurisdiction, in a move that has wide ranging effects for the adjudication of Islamic law in the country. One notable case[1] in which it sought to do so arose in a 2010 challenge to the constitutionality of the … Continue reading CASE COMMENT: Pakistan’s Federal Shariat Court on the Protection of Women Act of 2006: Expansion of Jurisdiction, Expansion of ḥudūd
India editor Akhila Kolisetty highlights the Shah Bano case as a marker of constitutional conflict between the Indian government's civil laws and its Muslim citizens' personal status laws. Mohammed Ahmed Khan v. Shah Bano Begum is a landmark case dealing with Muslim family law in India decided by the Indian Supreme Court in 1985. This case addressed a conflict between … Continue reading Case Comment :: The Shah Bano Case as Constitutional Conflict in India’s Muslim Family Law
