- Faculty of Law
78 Queens Park
Toronto, ON M5S 2C5
Canada
Website: www.anveremon.com
Anver Emon
University of Toronto, Faculty of Law, Faculty Member
- Law, Philosophy, Political Philosophy, Human Rights Law, Islamic Law, Philosophy Of Law, and 53 morePublic International Law, Ethics, Jurisprudence, Legal Theory, Islamic History, Political Theory, Islamic Studies, Islamic Political Thought, Kalam (Islamic Theology), Islamic feminism, Political Islam, Governance, Development Studies, Law and Religion, Law and Development, Multiculturalism, Identity, Citizenship, Intercultural dialogue, Islam, Media, Communication, Sociology, Theology, Anthropology, Religion, Muslims, Human Rights, Feminism, Sharia, Religious Persecution, Population Trends, Comparative Law, Religion and State, Hadith, Rule of Law, Gender Studies, Islamic Banking, Islamic Finance, Interfaith Dialogue, Interfaith Discourse, Historical Theology, Statutory Construction, Legislation, Natural Law, Anthropology of the State, Ethnography of Religion, Islamic Economics, Medieval Islam, Islamic Contemporary Studies, Islamic Banking And Finance, James C. Scott, and Noah Salomonedit
- Director, Institute of Islamic Studies, University of Toronto Canada Research Chair in Religion, Pluralism & the Rule... moreDirector, Institute of Islamic Studies, University of Toronto
Canada Research Chair in Religion, Pluralism & the Rule of Law
Series Editor, Oxford Islamic Legal Studies Series
Senior Fellow, Massey College
Member, College of the Royal Society of Canada
Guggenheim Fellow (2014-2015)edit
A chapter devoted to the study of Islamic law and jurisdiction, as a site within the larger legal contest of parental child abduction. The focus on the premodern doctrine is meant to offer an initial intervention in the field of... more
A chapter devoted to the study of Islamic law and jurisdiction, as a site within the larger legal contest of parental child abduction. The focus on the premodern doctrine is meant to offer an initial intervention in the field of jurisdiction and Islamic law, and set the stage for new scholarship on issues such as this. When read with chapter 6 of the book, the two chapters raise questions about whether and to what extent modern Muslim majority states implementing Islamic family law inadvertently import premodern jurisdictional rules that operate today to collapse substantive and jurisdictional law in complicated cross-border legal issues.
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Introduction 1. Dhimmis, Shari'a, and Empire 2. Reason, Contract, and the Obligation to Obey 3. Pluralism, Dhimmi Rules, and the Regulation of Difference 4. The Rationale of Empire and the Hegemony of Law 5. Shari'a as Rule of Law... more
Introduction 1. Dhimmis, Shari'a, and Empire 2. Reason, Contract, and the Obligation to Obey 3. Pluralism, Dhimmi Rules, and the Regulation of Difference 4. The Rationale of Empire and the Hegemony of Law 5. Shari'a as Rule of Law 6. The Dhimmi Rules in the Post-Colonial Muslim State 7. Religious Minorities and the Empire of the Law Conclusion
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This chapter will explore the premodern legal doctrine and more contemporary approaches, on entry and exit from the community denoted by ‘Islam’. This analysis will centre on the implications of entry, belonging, and exit on one’s status... more
This chapter will explore the premodern legal doctrine and more contemporary approaches,
on entry and exit from the community denoted by ‘Islam’. This analysis will centre on the
implications of entry, belonging, and exit on one’s status under Islamic law. It will also address
the status of women and other subordinated Muslim groups under the law. In all cases, it
should be understood that the doctrinal analysis below applies to individuals living within an
Islamic regime, which premodern Muslim jurists generally understood in imperial terms.
on entry and exit from the community denoted by ‘Islam’. This analysis will centre on the
implications of entry, belonging, and exit on one’s status under Islamic law. It will also address
the status of women and other subordinated Muslim groups under the law. In all cases, it
should be understood that the doctrinal analysis below applies to individuals living within an
Islamic regime, which premodern Muslim jurists generally understood in imperial terms.
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This Fieldnote challenges scholars of Islam and Muslims to consider how the production of knowledge on Islam and Muslims has long been, and continues to be, intimately associated with projects of governance, whether by the modern state or... more
This Fieldnote challenges scholars of Islam and Muslims to consider how the production of knowledge on Islam and Muslims has long been, and continues to be, intimately associated with projects of governance, whether by the modern state or premodern regime. The present is simply a particularly robust historical period during which, wherever one might stand on the political spectrum, the study of Islam is undertaken in the shadow of the state-a disaggregated project of law and justice, border control, national security, and regulation. This Fieldnote recasts Islam and Muslim in an adjectival sense-'Islamic' and 'Muslim'-in order to highlight their variability in relation to the purposes for which they are deployed. To better understand the dynamics by which the 'Islamic' is deployed for purposes of state projects, this Fieldnote outlines four registers of analysis-time, space, scale, and rhetoric-to inspire new research on the production of knowledge in the academic study of Islam and Muslims today.
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An encyclopedia entry on the topic in islamic law and legal history
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This chapter examines the litigation against Asad Ansari, who was charged with terrorism offences as part of the Toronto 18. The authors examined the litigation files held in the archives of the Ontario Court of Appeals. Through close... more
This chapter examines the litigation against Asad Ansari, who was charged with terrorism offences as part of the Toronto 18. The authors examined the litigation files held in the archives of the Ontario Court of Appeals. Through close readings of trial transcripts and judicial decisions on evidentiary motions, the chapter illustrates that systemically embedded in the features of Canada's adversarial legal system and Criminal Code are legal dynamics that enable racialized, Orientalist readings of Islam and Muslims, and echo the medieval dynamics of religious inquisitions.
open access: https://journals.library.ualberta.ca/themanitobalawjournal/index.php/mlj/article/view/1249
open access: https://journals.library.ualberta.ca/themanitobalawjournal/index.php/mlj/article/view/1249
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There are two different and distinct ways to address the legal other in Islamic law. The first, which is animated by the concept of ‘jurisdiction’, concerns the place of other legal traditions within Islamic law. A typical situation might... more
There are two different and distinct ways to address the legal other in Islamic law. The first,
which is animated by the concept of ‘jurisdiction’, concerns the place of other legal traditions
within Islamic law. A typical situation might involve whether and to what extent an imagined
‘domestic’ Shariʿa court would resolve a dispute that originated in a foreign jurisdiction. The
second concerns the ‘religious other’ living in Islamic lands governed by Islamic law. In both
cases, premodern Muslim jurists imagined the foreign law and the religious other as appearing
before a ‘domestic’ court in Islamic lands. This chapter will examine both approaches to the
‘legal other’ in Islamic law.
which is animated by the concept of ‘jurisdiction’, concerns the place of other legal traditions
within Islamic law. A typical situation might involve whether and to what extent an imagined
‘domestic’ Shariʿa court would resolve a dispute that originated in a foreign jurisdiction. The
second concerns the ‘religious other’ living in Islamic lands governed by Islamic law. In both
cases, premodern Muslim jurists imagined the foreign law and the religious other as appearing
before a ‘domestic’ court in Islamic lands. This chapter will examine both approaches to the
‘legal other’ in Islamic law.
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This chapter will introduce the basic, theoretical architecture of competing Islamic natural law theories from the pre-modern period (ninth to fourteenth centuries). Specifically, it will outline juristic debates in the usul al-fiqh genre... more
This chapter will introduce the basic, theoretical architecture of competing
Islamic natural law theories from the pre-modern period (ninth to
fourteenth centuries). Specifically, it will outline juristic debates in the
usul al-fiqh genre on reason as a source of law, where revelation is silent.
Thereafter it will reflect on a range of doctrinal debates in which many of
those same pre-modern jurists came to a legal determination without
reference to scriptural (or any other) texts. Drawing on a curious heuristic
they labelled huquq Allah and huquq al-ʿibad (the claims of God
and the claims of individuals), I will show that despite not invoking
(expressly or otherwise) any natural law account of Islamic law, jurists
nonetheless developed law based on a mode of rationality that could be
called anything from ‘rational’ to ‘common-sense’ to ‘pragmatic’.
Islamic natural law theories from the pre-modern period (ninth to
fourteenth centuries). Specifically, it will outline juristic debates in the
usul al-fiqh genre on reason as a source of law, where revelation is silent.
Thereafter it will reflect on a range of doctrinal debates in which many of
those same pre-modern jurists came to a legal determination without
reference to scriptural (or any other) texts. Drawing on a curious heuristic
they labelled huquq Allah and huquq al-ʿibad (the claims of God
and the claims of individuals), I will show that despite not invoking
(expressly or otherwise) any natural law account of Islamic law, jurists
nonetheless developed law based on a mode of rationality that could be
called anything from ‘rational’ to ‘common-sense’ to ‘pragmatic’.
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A jointly authored article between an Islamic law scholar and a Rabinnic law scholar tracing the genealogical politics of the Rabbic law of war and the Islamic law on religious minorities.
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An overview and introduction to the genealogies of Islamic law in the modern state.
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A chapter devoted to the study of Islamic law and jurisdiction, as a site within the larger legal contest of parental child abduction. The focus on the premodern doctrine is meant to offer an initial intervention in the field of... more
A chapter devoted to the study of Islamic law and jurisdiction, as a site within the larger legal contest of parental child abduction. The focus on the premodern doctrine is meant to offer an initial intervention in the field of jurisdiction and Islamic law, and set the stage for new scholarship on issues such as this. When read with chapter 6 of the book, the two chapters raise questions about whether and to what extent modern Muslim majority states implementing Islamic family law inadvertently import premodern jurisdictional rules that operate today to collapse substantive and jurisdictional law in complicated cross-border legal issues.
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ABSTRACT This paper approaches the issue of gender equality in Islamic law by reference to the paradox of equality. The paradox of equality accounts for the fact that, at times, justice requires a legal differentiation between two people,... more
ABSTRACT This paper approaches the issue of gender equality in Islamic law by reference to the paradox of equality. The paradox of equality accounts for the fact that, at times, justice requires a legal differentiation between two people, such that to treat them equally would be unjust. This begs a question about how to determine which factual differences are relevant for legal differentiation, as opposed to those factual differences where legal differentiation is tantamount to discrimination. As this paper suggests, to view gender equality through the lens of the paradox of equality offers a robust perspective on the strategies necessary to push forward a gender reform agenda in the Muslim world.
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An examination of the rhetoric of "sharia", or what I call "Shari'a-talk", so as to unpack the political work it does across regions, polities, and cultural contexts. Once having unpacked this... more
An examination of the rhetoric of "sharia", or what I call "Shari'a-talk", so as to unpack the political work it does across regions, polities, and cultural contexts. Once having unpacked this rhetorical usage, I offer an account of Sharia as "rule of law", where rule of law is also cast as rhetorical, but in the service of defining and policing a legal topography.
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This essay outlines natural law approaches in the study of Islamic Law, engaging various debates in the field, while locating them within the politics and sociology of knowledge production about Islam and Islamic law.
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This Fieldnote challenges scholars of Islam and Muslims to consider how the production of knowledge on Islam and Muslims has long been, and continues to be, intimately associated with projects of governance, whether by the modern state or... more
This Fieldnote challenges scholars of Islam and Muslims to consider how the production of knowledge on Islam and Muslims has long been, and continues to be, intimately associated with projects of governance, whether by the modern state or premodern regime. The present is simply a particularly robust historical period during which, wherever one might stand on the political spectrum, the study of Islam is undertaken in the shadow of the state—a disaggregated project of law and justice, border control, national security, and regulation. This Fieldnote recasts Islam and Muslim in an adjectival sense—‘Islamic’ and ‘Muslim’—in order to highlight their variability in relation to the purposes for which they are deployed. To better understand the dynamics by which the ‘Islamic’ is deployed for purposes of state projects, this Fieldnote outlines four registers of analysis—time, space, scale, and rhetoric—to inspire new research on the production of knowledge in the academic study of Islam and...
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This article repositions historigraphically a particular thesis in Islamic legal studies that characterizes Islamic law as utterly incompatible with codification, and by implication the modern administrative state. This article departs... more
This article repositions historigraphically a particular thesis in Islamic legal studies that characterizes Islamic law as utterly incompatible with codification, and by implication the modern administrative state. This article departs from that argument by situating codification efforts in Muslim majority polities alongside other efforts at codification, specifically 19th century Germany and the United States. The article shows that the thesis of incompatibility relies on a constricted reading of the “Islamic”, an overdetermined conception of the state, and an under-appreciation of the populist-cum-democratic ideology that animates the thesis in the first place. A more fruitful way forward is to reify the “state” rather than rarefy it as a theophanic specter. To better appreciate the relationship between Islamic law and codification, the argument suggests, requires that scholars attend to the “state” while resituating the history of the “Islamic” in terms of a history of the “legal”.
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During 2006, controversies concerning Shari‘a or Islamic law seemed to dominate media reports. From cartoons to apostasy trials, Shari‘a was deemed to be at the core of controversies that attained international notoriety. Furthermore,... more
During 2006, controversies concerning Shari‘a or Islamic law seemed to dominate media reports. From cartoons to apostasy trials, Shari‘a was deemed to be at the core of controversies that attained international notoriety. Furthermore, Shari‘a was implicitly invoked by the Pope in his now infamous speech at Regensberg, in which he referred to the prophet Muhammad and an early Muslim jurist in order to define Europe as Christian and contrary to all that is Islamic. The Shari‘a-related events of 2006 raised fundamental questions not just about what Shari‘a is, but more fundamentally about the place of Muslims and their religious tradition in the international system. This article attempts to survey the above Shari‘a-related events from 2006 in order to illustrate how references to Shari‘a, whether by Muslims or non-Muslims, were embedded within a larger discourse on identity, community, and difference. This survey will not provide an in-depth analysis and critique of the Shari‘a doctri...
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Foreword 1. Editors' Introduction PART I: ISLAMIC LAW AND INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS LAW Narrating Law Shari'a and the Modern State Commentary to Anver M. Emon "Shari'a and the Modern State" and Kathleen Cavanaugh... more
Foreword 1. Editors' Introduction PART I: ISLAMIC LAW AND INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS LAW Narrating Law Shari'a and the Modern State Commentary to Anver M. Emon "Shari'a and the Modern State" and Kathleen Cavanaugh "Narrating Law" Clearing Ground: Comment on "Shari'a and the Modern State" Commentary: Shari'a as Rule of Law PART II: FREEDOM OF SPEECH Rethinking the Universality of Human Rights: A Comparative Historical Proposal for the Idea of "Common Ground" with Other Moral Traditions Negotiating Speech in Islamic Law and Politics: Flipped Traditions of Expression The Great Divide and the Common Ground Between the United States and the Rest of the World PART III: FREEDOM OF RELIGION Freedom of Religion and Belief in International Law: A Comparative Analysis Pre-Modern Islamic Legal Restrictions on Freedom of Religion, with Particular Reference to Apostasy and its Punishment The Freedom of Religion and Expression: A Rule of Law Perspective Commentary PART IV: WOMEN'S EQUALITY Unveiling Equality: Disciplining the 'Other' Woman Through Human Rights Discourse Women in Search of Common Ground Between Islamic and International Human Rights Law Women and Islamic Law - Commentary Islamic and International Law: Searching for Common Ground: Musawah, CEDAW, and Muslim Family Laws in the 21st Century PART V: MINORITY RIGHTS Religious Minorities and Islamic Law: Accommodation and the Limits of Tolerance The Dialectic of International Law and the Contested Approaches to Minority Rights Religious Minorities and Islamic Law Islam vs. the Shari'a: Minority Protection within Islamic and International Legal Traditions Epilogue: Common Ground or Clearing Ground?
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This article offers an Islamic legal perspective on the question posed by this symposium issue, namely the future of theological ethics. Concerned that abstract statements of value all too often play into an apologetics that hides more... more
This article offers an Islamic legal perspective on the question posed by this symposium issue, namely the future of theological ethics. Concerned that abstract statements of value all too often play into an apologetics that hides more than it reveals, the article offers a paradigm that makes two specific contributions to the question of this symposium in a context of increasing tension over religious diversity in Europe and North America. First, it adopts a context-rich form of ethical engagement that weaves together commitments to theology and to our place in the world. Second, it provides a model by which to interrogate the assumptions and even the secular apologetics that arise in legal disputes involving contests about religion and the public sphere.
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The concept of sovereignty has posed important challenges in the ongoing debates and discourses on Islam and international law. This essay illustrates how sovereignty reflects competing ideas about legitimate authority by examining and... more
The concept of sovereignty has posed important challenges in the ongoing debates and discourses on Islam and international law. This essay illustrates how sovereignty reflects competing ideas about legitimate authority by examining and exploring distinct debates in Islamic thought, all of which share a concern about the nature, scope, and contours of legitimacy and authority. This article does not offer a prescriptive argument for a robust notion of sovereignty in Islam, nor does it attempt to judge the Islamic past pursuant to contemporary strands of political theory. Rather, it explores various strands of historical Islamic intellectual debate that traverse the realms of theology, law and politics in order to reflect on the conditions of different sovereignties and their relationship to one another.
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Research Interests: Finance, Law, Islamic Law, Economics, Islamic Economics, and 14 moreEconomic Growth, Islam, Law and Finance, Islamic Banking, Islamic Finance, Islamic Economics and Finance, Islamic Banking And Finance, Financial System, Business and Management, Financial Institutions, Profitability, Profit Sharing, Contract Design, and Humanomics
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This Fieldnote challenges scholars of Islam and Muslims to consider how the produc- tion of knowledge on Islam and Muslims has long been, and continues to be, intimately associated with projects of governance, whether by the modern state... more
This Fieldnote challenges scholars of Islam and Muslims to consider how the produc- tion of knowledge on Islam and Muslims has long been, and continues to be, intimately associated with projects of governance, whether by the modern state or premodern re- gime. The present is simply a particularly robust historical period during which, wher- ever one might stand on the political spectrum, the study of Islam is undertaken in the shadow of the state—a disaggregated project of law and justice, border control, na- tional security, and regulation. This Fieldnote recasts Islam and Muslim in an adjectival sense—‘Islamic’ and ‘Muslim’—in order to highlight their variability in relation to the purposes for which they are deployed. To better understand the dynamics by which the ‘Islamic’ is deployed for purposes of state projects, this Fieldnote outlines four registers of analysis—time, space, scale, and rhetoric—to inspire new research on the produc- tion of knowledge in the academic study of Islam and Muslims today.
For a limited time, the article is freely available from Brill at this link:
https://brill.com/view/journals/melg/11/3/article-p347_347.xml?language=en
For a limited time, the article is freely available from Brill at this link:
https://brill.com/view/journals/melg/11/3/article-p347_347.xml?language=en
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This essay outlines natural law approaches in the study of Islamic Law, engaging various debates in the field, while locating them within the politics and sociology of knowledge production about Islam and Islamic law.
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This essay provides a historiographic introduction to the literature on Islamic finance. It situates the financial practice in terms of foundational principles; historical legal doctrines as reapplied in a contemporary financial context;... more
This essay provides a historiographic introduction to the literature on Islamic finance. It
situates the financial practice in terms of foundational principles; historical legal
doctrines as reapplied in a contemporary financial context; and an institutional,
regulatory framework developed over the course of the 20th century. The rise of Islamic
finance occurs at the intersection of excessive surplus wealth from the 1970 oil boom and
an increasingly deregulated global financial sector in the 1980s; as such, this essay
conceptually situates the Islamic financial order within the broader turn to free-market
ideologies and policies globally.
situates the financial practice in terms of foundational principles; historical legal
doctrines as reapplied in a contemporary financial context; and an institutional,
regulatory framework developed over the course of the 20th century. The rise of Islamic
finance occurs at the intersection of excessive surplus wealth from the 1970 oil boom and
an increasingly deregulated global financial sector in the 1980s; as such, this essay
conceptually situates the Islamic financial order within the broader turn to free-market
ideologies and policies globally.
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This article examines issues surrounding the historiography of ijtihad within the context of Islamic law. It considers the politics informing debates about whether the " gates " were ever closed, and what " closure " implies about... more
This article examines issues surrounding the historiography of ijtihad within the context of Islamic law. It considers the politics informing debates about whether the " gates " were ever closed, and what " closure " implies about Islamic law. It then discusses calls for the " reopening " of the " gates " , suggesting that such calls seem to reflect more about the conditions of modernity that pose new questions to a tradition with a considerable history, and less about the study of Islamic law. It also reviews the scholarship on ijtihad as a topic of legal theory in the usul al-fiqh genre and in relation to contemporary issues in legal philosophy and interpretation, along with the discourse of ijtihad in the modern period and its significance as a proxy for underlying concerns about epistemology, legal education, and authority. Finally, it outlines new scholarly directions for research on ijtihad. The topic of ijtihad has occupied researchers of Islamic law for decades if not centuries. Moreover, polemicists and reformists in more popular venues invoke it to question the relevance and ongoing significance of Islamic law in the world today. This essay will canvass a range of issues pertaining to the historiography of ijtihad. It will start by addressing the highly fraught concept of the " gates of ijtihad " and the debates about whether the " gates " were ever closed, what " closure " implies about Islamic law, and how calls for its " reopening " seem to reflect less about the study of Islamic law and more about the conditions of modernity that pose new questions to a tradition with a considerable history. Thereafter, the essay will explore the scholarship on ijtihad as a topic of legal theory in the usul al-fiqh genre, and the intersection of that discussion with contemporary issues in legal philosophy and interpretation. The essay will then turn to the discourse of ijtihad in the modern period, and its significance as a proxy for
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This article examines the production and analysis of fiqh by surveying Islamic legal scholarship. It highlights the implications different analytic approaches bring to the study of fiqh as both doctrine and literary genre. Starting with... more
This article examines the production and analysis of fiqh by surveying Islamic legal scholarship. It highlights the implications different analytic approaches bring to the study of fiqh as both doctrine and literary genre. Starting with an overview of debates about legal reform in the context of " modernity, " the article proceeds to an analysis of philology as a disciplinary frame and its limits. The article then turns to studies of philology in conversation with history and the perceived demise of philology in the British and North American academy. Thereafter, the article explores fiqh as a genre of legal literature that informs interpretive approaches in the social sciences, including the literature on Islamic law and anthropology and the fatwa as a site of legal practice in contrast to fiqh. Finally, it looks at fiqh as the object of critique and offers suggestions for future research.
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This article repositions historigraphically a particular thesis in Islamic legal studies that characterizes Islamic law as utterly incompatible with codification, and by implication the modern administrative state. This article departs... more
This article repositions historigraphically a particular thesis in Islamic legal studies that characterizes Islamic law as utterly incompatible with codification, and by implication
the modern administrative state. This article departs from that argument by situating codification efforts in Muslim majority polities alongside other efforts at codification, specifically 19th century Germany and the United States. The article shows that the thesis of incompatibility relies on a constricted reading of the “Islamic”, an overdetermined conception of the state, and an under-appreciation of the populist-cum-democratic ideology that animates the thesis in the first place. A more fruitful
way forward is to reify the “state” rather than rarefy it as a theophanic specter. To better appreciate the relationship between Islamic law and codification, the argument suggests, requires that scholars attend to the “state” while resituating the history of the “Islamic” in terms of a history of the “legal”.
the modern administrative state. This article departs from that argument by situating codification efforts in Muslim majority polities alongside other efforts at codification, specifically 19th century Germany and the United States. The article shows that the thesis of incompatibility relies on a constricted reading of the “Islamic”, an overdetermined conception of the state, and an under-appreciation of the populist-cum-democratic ideology that animates the thesis in the first place. A more fruitful
way forward is to reify the “state” rather than rarefy it as a theophanic specter. To better appreciate the relationship between Islamic law and codification, the argument suggests, requires that scholars attend to the “state” while resituating the history of the “Islamic” in terms of a history of the “legal”.
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In an attempt to think through the Islamic alongside the Christian, this essay draws upon the political theology of Carl Schmitt to reflect on the salience of sovereignty. But in doing so, the essay re-reads Schmitt’s political theology... more
In an attempt to think through the Islamic alongside the Christian, this essay draws upon the political theology of Carl Schmitt to reflect on the salience of sovereignty. But in doing so, the essay re-reads Schmitt’s political theology for its protestant voluntarism, and adopts a more robust theological voluntarism as a vehicle for reflecting on political thought across both Christian and Islamic history. Moreover, this approach to political theology makes possible reflections on how political theology, whether in Christian or Islamic thought, may offer a critical lens by which to gain new analytic insights into the operation of sovereignty in presumably secularized regimes of thought, such as international law.
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An examination of the rhetoric of "sharia", or what I call "Shari'a-talk", so as to unpack the political work it does across regions, polities, and cultural contexts. Once having unpacked this rhetorical usage, I offer an account of... more
An examination of the rhetoric of "sharia", or what I call "Shari'a-talk", so as to unpack the political work it does across regions, polities, and cultural contexts. Once having unpacked this rhetorical usage, I offer an account of Sharia as "rule of law", where rule of law is also cast as rhetorical, but in the service of defining and policing a legal topography.
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This is chapter 5 of a larger book project on Islamic law, international law and parental child abduction. This chapter focuses on the early Islamic legal history on jurisdiction. This chapter raises a fundamental question that is often... more
This is chapter 5 of a larger book project on Islamic law, international law and parental child abduction. This chapter focuses on the early Islamic legal history on jurisdiction. This chapter raises a fundamental question that is often hidden from view in most discussions on Islamic Family Law, and certainly in parental child abduction cases. Namely, it examines the history of jurisdiction in Islamic Law so as to appreciate that history’s contribution to legal forms of Islamic exceptionalism in Muslim Family Law States. When read together with Chapter 6 of the book, we suggest that the exceptional space created for Islamically inspired Personal Status Law imports certain pre-modernjurisdictional rules without necessarily intending to do so. Those jurisdictional rules are only a part of the broader pre-modern approach to
jurisdiction, a fuller account of which is the principal aim of this chapter.
By exploring – at times in painful detail – the nature, dynamics, and
complexity of pre-modern Islamic rules on jurisdiction, this chapter sets
the stage for a critical legal history of Muslim Family Law State practices
in cases of international parental child abduction.
jurisdiction, a fuller account of which is the principal aim of this chapter.
By exploring – at times in painful detail – the nature, dynamics, and
complexity of pre-modern Islamic rules on jurisdiction, this chapter sets
the stage for a critical legal history of Muslim Family Law State practices
in cases of international parental child abduction.
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This is my substantive chapter on Islamic natural law theories, which appears in a co-authored book on natural law published by Oxford UP. My coauthors are Matthew Levering and David Novak. The book brings together work on Jewish,... more
This is my substantive chapter on Islamic natural law theories, which appears in a co-authored book on natural law published by Oxford UP. My coauthors are Matthew Levering and David Novak. The book brings together work on Jewish, Christian, and Islamic natural law, and features commentaries by the authors on each other's substantive essay. This essay both addresses and extends my previous scholarship on Islamic natural law theories, in part by delving into Islamic natural philosophy, and exploring the differences between a jurisprudence of natural law and a natural philosophy of causation. It is written for both specialists and a broad audience, and the structure of the book is intended to generate conversation across traditions of difference.