Following the beheading of Samuel Paty, a French teacher of civics, for showing caricatures of the Prophet in class during a discussion on French secularism or laicité, French teachers reported finding conversations around the issue to be increasingly difficult and volatile. Japanese Muslims expressed their frustration with the difficulty to find burial facilities and locations … Continue reading Islamic Law in the News Roundup
Islam and Data Science Roundup
In "Islam-based legal language and state governance: democracy, strength of the judiciary and human rights" (Constitutional Political Economy (2020)), Emilia Justyna Powell (University of Notre Dame) and her coauthors test the hypothesis of whether Islamic legal language is associated with lower levels of electoral democracy, fewer liberties, and a weaker judicial system. Based on an … Continue reading Islam and Data Science Roundup
Weekend Scholarship Roundup
In her book review for Reading Religion (November 19, 2020) of Tamir Moustafa’s (Simon Fraser University) Constituting Religion: Islam, Liberal Rights, and the Malaysian State (Cambridge University Press, 2018), Nurfadzilah Yahaya (National University of Singapore) argues that the book showcases how Islamic law is utilized by the country’s political elites “in the service of Malay … Continue reading Weekend Scholarship Roundup
Islamic Law in the News Roundup
Details of France’s proposed bill to counter what President Macron called “Islamic separatism” began to emerge: the bill seeks to criminalize disclosing data about a person’s location to those who might do harm, to provide for summary trials for perpetrators of online hate crimes, to empower judges to prevent individuals with a certain criminal history … Continue reading Islamic Law in the News Roundup
Hum Do Hamare Do* and Sharī’a in India
By Nikhil Goyal This post is part of the Digital Islamic Law Lab (DILL) series, in which a Harvard student analyzes a primary source of Islamic law, previously workshopped in the DIL Lab. * A common Hindi slogan indicating the desirability of a married couple limiting their progeny to two. Source Summary In Javed & Ors. v. … Continue reading Hum Do Hamare Do* and Sharī’a in India
Comparative Law and the Middle East at ASCL 2020! (A PIL Guide)
The Program in Islamic Law (PIL) has curated a list of panels from the American Society of Comparative Law's (ASCL) 2020 Annual Meeting schedule that feature speakers whose submissions are related to the Middle East, Islamic law and history, or Muslim-majority countries.* ASCL's annual meeting this year, cosponsored by UCLA School of Law International and … Continue reading Comparative Law and the Middle East at ASCL 2020! (A PIL Guide)
Faculty-student collaboration during Covid-19
By Mona Oraby This essay is the final of three essays on Islamic law and pedagogy written by Mona Oraby. The first is “Islamic law and the liberal arts” and the second is “Why we should start with women.” Amherst College, where I teach, announced on 9 March 2020 that it would move to remote … Continue reading Faculty-student collaboration during Covid-19
Islamic Law and the Liberal Arts
By Mona Oraby This essay is the first of three essays on Islamic law and pedagogy written by Mona Oraby. The second is “Why we should start with women” and the third is “Faculty-student collaboration during Covid-19.” I teach a course called Islamic Constitutionalism at Amherst College. Colleagues at other institutions are often surprised and flattered when … Continue reading Islamic Law and the Liberal Arts
Conjoined Twins: Human Rights and Islam in the Constitutional System of Pakistan
By Zubair Abbasi Ever since Pakistan’s creation as an independent state in 1947, Islam has continued to permeate its constitutional and legal system. From the confines of the personal law of Muslims at the time of independence, Islam has become the grundnorm of Pakistan’s constitutional system.[1] Curiously, the gradual elevation of Islam in the formal … Continue reading Conjoined Twins: Human Rights and Islam in the Constitutional System of Pakistan
Islamic Judicial Review in Practice (2): Strategic Islamization of Laws
By Zubair Abbasi The most significant impact of Islamic judicial review is the incorporation of qiṣāṣ and dīyah in the legal system of Pakistan. During the colonial period, the British replaced Islamic criminal law with the Indian Penal Code 1860. There are two important components of Islamic criminal law: ḥudūd and qiṣāṣ. Ḥudūd are fixed … Continue reading Islamic Judicial Review in Practice (2): Strategic Islamization of Laws