In "Can Islamic Law Principles Regarding Settlement of Criminal Disputes Solve the Problem of the US Mass Incarceration?" (SSRN, June 23, 2021), Amin R. Yacoub (University of Virginia School of Law) and Becky Briggs (University of San Diego) discuss the phenomenon of mass incarceration in the United States and how Islamic law principles of criminal … Continue reading Weekend Scholarship Roundup
By Ayman Shabana In the Islamic legal tradition, family relationships are based on one of three main bonds: blood, marriage, and breastfeeding. One’s formal affiliation is determined primarily on the basis of the agnatic line of descent. Family relationships on the maternal side are important but most lineage-related regulations are based on one’s patrilineal descent. … Continue reading Islamic Law, Assisted Reproductive Technologies, and Surrogacy
By Ayman Shabana In the Islamic tradition, Islamic rules governing paternity are closely tied to a number of important legal concepts and procedures. Most importantly, paternity regulations have strong connections with marriage and the definition of a licit sexual relationship, mainly in light of the well-known Prophetic report which has established that link “the child … Continue reading Islamic Law of Paternity and DNA Evidence
By Ayman Shabana One of the important reasons why the use of the term “Islamic law” as the English counterpart for sharīʿa is problematic has to do with the conceptualization of the relationship between law and ethics in Islam. In the modern period, the term “law” is often understood as positive, secular, or man-made law, … Continue reading Islamic Law, (Bio)ethics, and Ethical Gatekeeping of Science
By Ayman Shabana In the Islamic juristic tradition, the relationship between sharīʿa and custom raised important methodological questions, ranging from: the nature and number of sources, formulation of rulings, guidelines for the understanding and interpretation of the scriptural texts, and implementation and application of legal rules particularly in novel cases requiring independent reasoning. In general, … Continue reading Sharīʿa, Custom, and Modern Legal Reform
In Rediscovery and Revival in Islamic Environmental Law: Back to the Future of Nature's Trust (Cambridge University Press, 2021), Samira Idllalenè (Cadi Ayyad University, Marakesh) argues that commonalities across religions and different legal systems, including common law, Islamic law, and environmental law, can be employed to create better protections against climate change. In Reopening Muslim … Continue reading Weekend Scholarship Roundup
In "The Application of Maqasid Al-Shari’ah in the Foreign Policy of Islamic States" (International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 2021), Usman Safiyanu Duguri and others discuss the relevance of the objectives of Islamic law (maqāsid al-sharī'a) to how Muslim-majority nations formulate their foreign policies, with an added observation that maqāsid al-sharī'a … Continue reading Weekend Scholarship Roundup
As Somalia continues to debate over what to include in its new constitution and when to hold a referendum on it, women's rights have emerged as a divisive point of discussion among the country's politicians. A former member of the Central Bank of Nigeria has urged the institution to establish a special tribunal to resolve … Continue reading Islamic Law in the News Roundup
By Mahmood Kooria The postclassical commentarial literature of Islamic law, once ignored for being repetitive and inauthentic, now has been receiving considerable scholarly attention. Through the processes of canonization, codification, regionalization, synthesis and transregional connections; forms such as core texts, commentaries, supercommentaries, autocommentaries, glosses, translations and summaries; and contents such as substantive laws, contextual selections … Continue reading Commentarial Ocean
In "Moral Value and Commercial Gain: Three Classical Islamic Approaches" (Journal of Arabic and Islamic Studies, forthcoming), Omar Farahat (McGill University Faculty of Law) explores the interplay between Islamic law and commercial ethics in classical Muslim thought by reference to three models: " anchoring moral value in this world, attributing moral goodness to salvation in … Continue reading Weekend Scholarship Roundup
