A digest of accessible reviews of recent or well-known works of Islamic law scholarship on the most noteworthy questions and debates. In Plain English reviews serves as an entry point to the academic study of Islamic law, or light reading for those interested in the latest developments. For shorter summaries of individual concepts from the scholarship, see the Islamic Law Lexicon .
SCHOLARSHIP ROUNDUP On Islamic Law: In a special episode of Borderlines, a legal podcast by Berkeley Law, entitled "Interpreting MetaCanons," Editor-in-Chief, Professor Intisar Rabb "talk[s] about her leading research on shared methods of interpretation for textualists across different systems. " In "Mohammedan Law" (The Volokh Conspiracy, August 8, 2022), Eugene Volokh (UCLA Law) discusses the … Continue reading Weekend Scholarship Roundup
On July 2, 2020, a division of Turkey's highest administrative appellate court annulled a 1934 presidential decision by Kemal Ataturk, founding president of Turkey, converting Hagia Sophia (tr. Aya Sofya) into a museum. Days later, on July 10, 2020, Recep Tayyip Erdogan issued a decision based on the court ruling, restoring its status as a … Continue reading Recent Case Roundup: On the Turkish Decision on Hagia Sofia
By Cem Tecimer Source: Noah Feldman, Law, Islam, and the Future of the Middle East 84 U. Det. Mercy L. Rev. 617-635 (2006-2007) Summary: In his invited lecture at the University of Detroit-Mercy School of Law (The Mcelroy Lecture), Noah Feldman engages the idea of separation of powers in Islamic law and its contemporaneous manifestations. … Continue reading Scholarship in “Plain English”: Noah Feldman on Law, Islam, and the Future of the Middle East
By Cem Tecimer Citation: Noah Feldman, Imposed Constitutions and Established Religion 4(3) The Rev. Faith & Int’l Aff. 3-12 (2006) [Abridged version of Imposed Constitutionalism 37 Conn. L. Rev. 857-889 (2005)] Summary: In this article, Feldman engages with the notion of separation of powers in Islam. Feldman argues that, while not a religious necessity as … Continue reading Scholarship in “Plain English”: Noah Feldman on Imposed Constitutions and Established Religion
By Cem Tecimer Source: Noah Feldman, Islamic Constitutionalism in Context: A Typology and a Warning 7 U. St. Thomas L. J. 436-451 (2010) Summary: Feldman begins his article by explaining what has prompted him to write the article in the first place: a symposium, in which he participated, entitled “Islamic Law and Constitutional Liberty.” Closely … Continue reading Scholarship in “Plain English”: Noah Feldman on Islamic Constitutionalism in Context: A Typology and a Warning
By Aya Saed Lena Salaymeh’s The Beginnings of Islamic Law crafts an intellectually rigorous framework through which to interrogate the hegemonic tradition of Islamic jurisprudence. “The objective of this book is to sketch what that something else might have been,”[1] deconstructing the linear, essentialist understanding of Islamic legal past “without assuming that the past inescapably … Continue reading Scholarship in “Plain English”: Lena Salaymeh on The Beginnings of Islamic Law: Late Antique Islamicate Legal Traditions
By Cem Tecimer Citation: Noah Feldman, Imposed Constitutionalism 37 Conn. L. Rev. 857-889 (2005) Summary: Written in response to his involvement in Iraq’s restructuring [though carefully mentioning that he had no direct involvement in the writing of the Iraqi constitutional draft, but was an adviser in the Transitional Administrative Law (TAL) process, see p. 858] … Continue reading Scholarship in “Plain English”: Noah Feldman on Imposed Constitutionalism
By Cem Tecimer Citation: Noah Feldman, The Democratic Fatwa: Islam and Democracy in the Realm of Constitutional Politics 58(1) Okla. L. Rev. 1-9 (2005) Summary: ‘Ali Sistani, who was born in Iran but spent most of his life in neighboring Iraq, became a central figure after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. This was, in part, … Continue reading Scholarship in “Plain English”: Noah Feldman on The Democratic Fatwa
By Cem Tecimer Abstract: Joseph Lowry on the Legal Hermeneutics of Two Early Islamic Scholars: In this article, Lowry responds to Calder’s assertion that Shāfi‘ī’s Risāla was written around the ninth century, juxtaposing its use of language to that of Ibn Qutayba’s Ta’wīl. Lowry, in refuting Calder’s claim, shows how the two texts have much … Continue reading Scholarship in “Plain English”: Joseph Lowry on the Legal Hermeneutics of al-Shāfi‘ī and Ibn Qutayba
