Courses 2009 - 2010

Offered: Not offered this academic year
Credits: 2-6, max 6

In the contemporary Muslim world many governments are trying to establish legal systems that ensure economic development and the protection of human rights, while at the same time pledging to ensure that their legislation, judicial decisions and private contracts reflect Islamic norms. In this course, we will examine case studies from one or more countries that have tried to develop effective legal and economic systems while ensuring that their citizens will recognize their legal systems as "Islamic." Studying the evolution of legal systems in such countries can help us understand better both the evolution of concepts transplanted into the Muslim world, and the reciprocal evolution of Islamic legal thinking as it comes into contact with new concepts. Such study allows us to understand why local cultural paradigms sometimes promote and sometimes impede the spread of the liberal rule of law. (Not offered 2009-2010 academic year.)