The prestigious Council on Foreign Relations (www.cfr.org),
which is widely considered the most important international relations think
tank in the United States, has chosen Assistant Professor
Clark Lombardi
as a resource for questions and background information regarding Islamic
law, or sharia, and constitutionalism. Lombardi's teaching and research at
the University of Washington School of Law focuses on
Islamic law, U.S. and comparative
constitutional law and development law. He is also assisting in a project
run by the law school's Asian Law Center, which is collaborating with Kabul
University to help train Afghan law professors.
The article – "Governing
Under Sharia" – currently posted on the council's public Web site,
provides a brief overview of sharia and its role in Islamic countries with
definitions and explanations by Lombardi and other experts. Lombardi also
served on the advisory committees for two forthcoming CFR special reports,
exploring Islamic legal issues, including a report about constitutionalism.
Lombardi,
who joined the faculty in 2004, holds a J.D. from Columbia Law School and a
Ph.D. in Islamic Studies from Columbia University. Prior to joining the UW
faculty, he was involved in a major project advising the government of Afghanistan on issues
of commercial law reform and legal capacity building. He also taught
seminars in Islamic law at Columbia Law School and New York University's
Department of Middle East Studies. Lombardi is currently finishing a book
discussing the interface of constitutional law and Islamic law in Egypt.
"The Council's public Web site is a rich resource and the first stop for
many people researching current issues in international affairs," says
Lombardi. "I think this will help the broader public realize that many
departments at the UW, including the law school, are extremely strong in the
areas of Islamic studies."