Between Islam and International Law: Quest for Common Ground and the Human Dignity Alternative
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.25159/2521-2583/16342Keywords:
decolonising international law, demythologising Westernism, human dignity, Islamic law, pedagogics of international lawAbstract
This paper seeks to find common ground between Islamic legalism and international law and develop a framework for accommodating the diverse heritage of Islamic legal thought within modern rule-of-law systems. Extrapolating from textual references, treaty norms, state practices as well as opinions of jurists and publicists across the Islamic and international law divide, this paper identifies human dignity as a critical area of common ground between these traditions, to stimulate a pragmatic debate that can nurture critical responses across traditions. While recognising that human dignity remains an area of international human rights law engendering robust debates and sometimes controversy about its content and application, this paper nonetheless argues that an opportunity exists for members of both Muslim and non-Muslim societies to come together as one global community to identify specific rights and obligations where Islamic law and international law can be reconciled and appropriately applied. The principle underpinning this paper’s approach is to adopt a reorientation in curriculum and pedagogical approaches that facilitates the exploration of shared values between two complex and highly nuanced legal traditions in a pragmatic way that deconstructs the narrow confines within which international law has been understood.
References
Ackermann L, Human Dignity: Lodestar for Equality in South Africa (Juta 2012).
Afolabi OS, ‘Globalisation, Decoloniality and the Question of Knowledge Production in Africa: A Critical Discourse’ (2020) 18(1) J HE Africa <https://doi.org/10.57054/jhea.v18i1.1456> DOI: https://doi.org/10.57054/jhea.v18i1.1456
al‐Atawneh M, ‘Shahāda Versus Terror in Contemporary Islamic Legal Thought: The Problem of Suicide Bombers’ (2008) 10(1) Journal of Islamic Studies and Culture <https://doi.org/.1080/15288170701878201> DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/15288170701878201
Al-Dawoody A, The Islamic Law of War: Justifications and Regulations (Palgrave Macmillan 2011) <https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230118089> DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230118089
Ali AY, The Holy Quran: Interpretation and Commentary (Islamic Propagation Centre 2022).
Ali MB, ‘Defining the “Enemies” of God: Muslim Extremists Perception of the Religious Other’ (2018) 6(1) Journal of Islamic Studies and Culture <https://doi.org/10.15640/jisc.v6n1a9> DOI: https://doi.org/10.15640/jisc.v6n1a9
Ali MB, ‘The Islamic Doctrine of Al-Wala’ wal Bara’ (Loyalty and Disavowal)’ in Modern Salafism (Unpublished PhD Thesis, University of Exeter, August 2012).
Allott AN, The Limits of Law (Butterworths 1980).
Al-Mas’ari MBA, Al-MuwaalahwalMu’adah (3rd edn, Tanzim At-Tajwid Al-Islami 2004).
Almutawa A, ‘The Arab Court of Human Rights and the Enforcement of the Arab Charter on Human Rights’ (2021) 21(3) Human Rights Law Review <https://doi.org/10.1093/hrlr/ngab008> DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/hrlr/ngab008
An-Na’im AA, Human Rights in Islam: Critique and Prospects or Human Rights in Islam: Framework for Radical Reform (Centre for the Study of Human Rights, Columbia University 1982).
Ansari AH, ‘Feminist Jurisprudence in Islam: An Overview’ (2010) 6(1) Journal of Islamic Law and Religion.
Ariye EC, ‘The United Nations and its Peace Purpose: An Assessment’ (2014) 5(1) Journal of Conflictology <https://doi.org/10.7238/joc.v5i1.1827> DOI: https://doi.org/10.7238/joc.v5i1.1827
Asghari SAH, ‘Understanding Human Dignity in Shi’i Islam: Debates, Challenges, and Solutions for Contemporary Issues’ (2023) 14 Religions <https://doi.org/ 10.3390/rel14040505> DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14040505
Baderin MA, International Human Rights and Islamic Law (Oxford University Press 2003).
Baderin, MA, ‘International Human Rights Law and Islamic Law: The Quest for Common Ground’ (2007) 7(2) Human Rights Law Review.
Bassiouni MC, ‘Protection of Diplomats Under Islamic Law’ (1980) 74(3) American JIL <https://doi.org/10.2307/2201651> DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/2201651
Biersteker TJ, Eckert SE and Tourinho M (eds), Targeted Sanctions: The Impacts and Effectiveness of the United Nations Actions (Cambridge University Press 2016) <https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781316460290> DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781316460290
Blankinship K, ‘The Early Creed’ in Cambridge Companion to Classical Islamic Theology (Cambridge University Press 2008) <https://doi.org/10.1017/CCOL9780521780582.003> DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CCOL9780521780582.003
Calder N and Hooker MB, ‘Sharīʿa’ in Encyclopaedia of Islam (CD-ROM edn, Brill 2004).
Calder N, Studies in Early Muslim Jurisprudence (Clarendon Press 1993).
Ćeman S and Mahić A, ‘Principles of Islamic Law of Armed Conflicts: Protection of Property, Treatment of Prisoners of War, Providing Refuge and Treatment of Bodies of the Deceased During Hostilities’ in Hasanović Z (ed) Islamic Law and International Humanitarian Law (Faculty of Islamic Studies 2020).
Choudhury CA and Beydoun KA (eds), Islamophobia and the Law (Cambridge University Press 2020) <https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108380768> DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108380768
Copleston FC, A History of Medieval Philosophy (University of Notre Dame Press 1972).
Coulson NJ, A History of Islamic Law (Edinburgh University Press 1964).
Crone P, God’s Rule: Government and Islam (Columbia University Press 2004).
Curren R, ’Pragmatist Philosophy of Education’ in Siegel H (ed) The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Education (online edition, Oxford Academic 2009) <https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195312881.003.0027> DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195312881.003.0027
Damad AM, ‘International Humanitarian Law in Islam and Contemporary International Law’ in Salimi H (ed) Islamic Views on Human Rights: Viewpoints of Iranian Scholars (Kanishka 2003).
David R and Brierly JEC, Major Legal Systems in the World Today (3rd edn, Stevens & Sons 1985).
Davidson LF, The Logic of Freedom: Free Will, Human Nature, and the Rational Argument for a Genuinely Free World (Austro-Libertarian Publishing 2023).
Douzina C, Human Rights and Empire: The Political Philosophy of Cosmopolitanism (Routledge-Cavendish 2007) <https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203945117> DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203945117
El Fadl KA, ‘Islamic Law and International Human Rights: A New Paradigm’ (1999) 12 Harvard Human Rights Journal.
Elshtain JB, ‘The Dignity of the Human Person and the Idea of Human Rights: Four Inquiries’ (1999–2000) 14(53) The Journal of Law and Religion <https://doi.org/10.2307/1051777> DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/1051777
Emon A, Ellis M and Glahn B (eds), Islamic Law and International Human Rights Law: Searching for Common Ground? (Oxford University Press 2012) <https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199641444.001.0001> DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199641444.001.0001
Euben RL, Enemy in the Mirror: Islamic Fundamentalism and the Limits of Modern Rationalism (Princeton University Press 1999) <https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400823239> DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400823239
Fadel M, ‘Reviewed Work: Analogical Reasoning in Islamic Jurisprudence: A Study of the Juridical Principle of Qiyas by Ahmad Hasan’ (2000/2001) 15(1–2) Journal of Law and Religion <https://doi.org/10.2307/1051524> DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/1051524
Farahat OM, ‘A Devotional Theory of Law: Epistemology and Moral Purpose in Early Islamic Jurisprudence’ (2016) 31 Journal of Law and Religion <https://doi.org/10.1017/jlr.2016.2> DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/jlr.2016.2
Ferrone V, ‘The Rights of History: Enlightenment and Human Rights’ (2017) 39 Human Rights Quarterly <https://doi.org/10.1353/hrq.2017.0004> DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/hrq.2017.0004
Garrison J, ‘Pragmatism and Educational Research’ (2004) 38(4) Journal of Philosophy of Education <https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0309-8249.2004.00413.x>
Gibb HAR, ‘Constitutional Organization’ in Khadduri M and Liebesny HJ (eds) Law in the Middle East (The Middle East Institute 1955).
Gilson E, Reason and Revelation in the Middle Ages (Charles Scribner’s Sons 1966).
Godwin I and Umoh UE, ‘The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis and the Conceptualisation of Peace Using Adjectives’ (2011) 2(2) J Conflictology <http://dx.doi.org/10.7238/joc.v2i2.1304>
Hacker PMS and Raz J (eds), Law, Morality, and Society: Essays in Honour of H. L. A. Hart (Clarendon Press 1977).
Hall MD, ‘Jeffersonian Walls and Madisonian Lines: The Supreme Court’s Use of History in Religion Clause Cases (2006) 85 Oregon Law Review.
Hallaq W, The Formation of the Classical Islamic World (Ashgate 2004).
Hallaq WB, ‘Was the Gate of Ijtihad Closed?’ (1984) 16(1) International Journal of Middle East Studies <https://doi.org/10.1017/S0020743800027598> DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0020743800027598
Hallaq WB, A History of Islamic Legal Theories (Cambridge University Press 1997) <https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511801266> DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511801266
Hallaq WB, Law and Legal Theory in Classical and Medieval Islam (Variorum 1995).
Hallaq WB, The Origins and Evolution of Islamic Law (Cambridge University Press 2005) <https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511818783>
Haugaard M, ‘Two types of freedom and four dimensions of power’ (2016) 275 Revue internationale de philosophie <https://doi.org/10.3917/rip.275.0037> DOI: https://doi.org/10.3917/rip.275.0037
Hillier HC, ‘Muhammad Iqbal on Al-Fiqh: Towards a Natural Law Jurisprudence’ (2010) 12(3) Journal of Islamic Law and Culture <https://doi.org/10.1080/1528817X.2010.618022> DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/1528817X.2010.618022
Iqbal M, ‘Political Thought in Islam’ Malik FM (ed) Muslim Political Thought: A Reconstruction (Alharma 2002).
Iqbal M, The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam (Kitab al-Islamiyyah 1974).
Ishay MR, The History of Human Rights: From Ancient Times to the Globalization Era (University of California Press 2008) <https://doi.org/10.1525/9780520934917-005>
Islam AMBM, Freedom of Religion in Shari’ah: A Comparative Analysis (AS Noordeen 2002).
Kamali MH, Between Islamic Law and International Law: Quest for Common Ground (Cambridge University Press 2017).
Kamali MH, ‘Maqāṣid Al-Sharī’ah’: The Objectives of Islamic Law’ (1999) 38(2) Islamic Studies. DOI: https://doi.org/10.52541/isiri.v38i2.6127
Kamali MH, Principles of Islamic Jurisprudence (3rd edn, Islamic Texts Society 2005).
Kayadibi S, Principles of Islamic Law and the Methods of Interpretation of the Texts (Uṣūl al-Fiqh) (Islamic Book Trust 2017).
Kedourie E, Politics in the Middle East (Oxford University Press 1992).
Kelly EI, ‘The Ethics of Law’s Authority: On Tommie Shelby’s “Dark Ghettos: Injustice, Dissent, and Reform”’ (2022) 16(1) Criminal Law and Philosophy <https://doi.org/.1007/s11572-019-09498-5>
Kelsay J and Johnson JT, Just War and Jihad: Historical and Theoretical Perspectives on War and Peace in Western and Islamic Traditions (Greenwood Press 1991).
Kessi S, Marks Z and Ramugondo E, ‘Decolonizing Knowledge Within and Beyond the Classroom’ (2021) 13(1) Critical African Studies <https://doi.org/: 10.1080/21681392.2021.1920749> DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/21681392.2021.1920749
Koopman C and Garside D, ‘Transition, Action and Education: Redirecting Pragmatist Philosophy of Education’ (2019) 53 Journal of Philosophy of Education <https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9752.12399> DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9752.12399
Köylü M, ‘Peace Education: An Islamic Approach’ (2004) 1(1) Journal of Peace Education <https://doi.org/10.1080/1740020032000178302> DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/1740020032000178302
Lapin TW, ‘On the Origins of Islamic Law’ (1975) 6(2) University of Baltimore Law Forum.
Lauren PG, The Evolution of International Human Rights: Visions Seen (University of Pennsylvania Press 2003).
Layish A, ‘The Transformation of the Sharīʿa from Jurists’ Law to Statutory Law in the Contemporary Muslim World’ (2004) 44(1) Die Welt des Islams <https://doi.org/10.1163/157006004773712587> DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/157006004773712587
Lingaas C and Zyberi G, ‘Special Issue on Disentangling the Relationship between Religion and Law’ (2021) 39(4) Nordic Journal of Human Rights <https://doi.org/10.1080/18918131.2021.2020487> DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/18918131.2021.2020487
Lobo GJ, ‘Human Rights and Status Functions, before and after the Enlightenment’ (2019) 49(1) Philosophy and Social Sciences <https://doi.org/10.1177/0048393118811574> DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0048393118811574
MacDonald RA and McMorrow TB, ‘Decolonising Law School’ (2014) 51(4) Alberta Law Review <https://doi.org/10.29173/alr34> DOI: https://doi.org/10.29173/alr34
Mahmood S, ‘Secularism, Hermeneutics and Empire: The Politics of Islamic Reformation’ (2006) 18(2) Public Culture <https://doi.org/10.1215/08992363-2006-006> DOI: https://doi.org/10.1215/08992363-2006-006
Malik S, ‘“Enjoin the Good, Prevent the Harmful”—The Intersection of Theory and Practice in the Implementation of Sharīʿa for Muslims in Western Societies: The Case of Medical Ethics in Britain’ (2011) 12(3) Journal of Islamic Studies and Culture <https://doi.org/10.1080/1528817X.2010.618017> DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/1528817X.2010.618017
Mallech SA, ‘A Contextual Reading of Sharīʿa in the Qurʾan: Implications for Contemporary Western Societies’ (2009) 11(1) Journal of Islamic Law and Culture <https://doi.org/10.1080/15288170902857681> DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/15288170902857681
Maqsood H, ‘Reconciling Islamic Law with International Law: A Human Dignity Approach’ (2016) 31(1) Journal of Law and Religion.
Maróth M, Human Dignity in The Islamic World—The Cambridge Handbook of Human Dignity Interdisciplinary Perspectives (Cambridge University Press 2014) <https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511979033.018> DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511979033.018
Maududi SA, Islamic Law and Constitution (11th edn, Islamic Publications 1992).
Mayer AE, Islam and Human Rights, Traditions and Politics (3rd edn, Westview Press 1999).
Mazower M, ‘The End of Civilization and the Rise of Human Rights: The Mid-Twentieth-Century Disjuncture’ in Hoffmann S (ed) Human Rights in the Twentieth Century (Cambridge University Press 2010) <https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511921667.003> DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511921667.003
McAuliffe JD (ed), Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾan (Georgetown University 2008).
McCoubery H and White ND, Text on Jurisprudence (Blackstone Press 1993).
Messick B, The Calligraphic State: Textual Domination and History in a Muslim Society (University of California Press 1992) <https://doi.org/10.1525/california/9780520076051.001.0001> DOI: https://doi.org/10.1525/california/9780520076051.001.0001
Milner A, England in Egypt (Edward Arnold 1892).
Mohammed AM, Muslims in Non-Muslim Lands (Islamic Texts Society 2013).
Montazeri HA, Self-Criticism: A Salutatory Lesson and Testament (The Office of Grand Ayatollah Montazeri 2009).
Moosa N and Goolam NMI, ‘Islamic Jurisprudence’ in Christopher Roederer and Darrel Moellendorf (eds) Jurisprudence (Juta & Co 2004).
Morriss P, ‘What Is Freedom If It Is Not Power?’ (2012) 59 (132) Theoria: A Journal of Social and Political Theory <https://doi.org/10.3167/th.2012.5913202> DOI: https://doi.org/10.3167/th.2012.5913202
Mozaffari MH, ‘Human Dignity: An Islamic Perspective’ (2011) Hekmat QJ <http://hekmat.ca/en/issue_04/content/54/> accessed 8 March 2024.
Munir M, ‘Public International Law and Islamic International Law: Identical Expressions of World Order’ (2003) 1 (3&4) Islamabad Law Review.
Muslehuddin M, Philosophy of Islamic Law and the Orientalists (3rd edn, Islamic Publications 1994).
Nardin T, The Ethics of War and Peace: Religious and Secular Perspectives (Princeton University Press 1996) <https://doi.org/10.1515/9780691221854> DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9780691221854
Nüssbaum A, A Concise History of the Law of Nations (revd edn, Macmillan 1954).
Olowu D, ‘Children’s Rights, International Human Rights and the Promise of Islamic Legal Theory’ (2008) 12(2) Law, Democracy and Development <https://doi.org/10.4314/ldd.v12i2.52894> DOI: https://doi.org/10.4314/ldd.v12i2.52894
Opwis F, ‘Maṣlaḥa in Contemporary Islamic Legal Theory’ (2005) 12(2) Islamic Law and Society <https://doi.org/10.1163/1568519054093699> DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/1568519054093699
Powers D, Spectorsky S and Arabi O (eds), Islamic Legal Thought a Compendium of Muslim Jurists (Brill 2013) <https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004255883> DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004255883
Ra’ees W, ‘In Quest for a Theory of Human Rights in the Intellectual Legacy of Classical Muslim Scholars and Jurists: General Observations’ (2005) 2(1) Journal of Islam in Asia.
Rabb IA, ‘Ijtihād’ in Esposito JL (ed) The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World (Oxford University Press 2009).
Rahman F, ‘Role of Islam in Global Peacebuilding and Harmony: An Analysis of Pacts of Madina and Hudaibiya’ (2018) 3(10) Abḥāth.
Rahman SA, ‘Secularism and Modernity: Alienation and the Renewal of Values in Political Islam’ (2009) 11(1) Journal of Islamic Law and Culture <https://doi.org/:10.1080/15288170902857723> DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/15288170902857723
Ramadan S, Islamic Law (PR Macmillan 1961).
Rosen L, ‘Equity and Discretion in a Modern Islamic Legal System’ (1980–1981) 15(2) Law and Society Revue <https://doi.org/10.2307/3053603> DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/3053603
Santoso MAF and Khisbiyah Y, ‘Islam-Based Peace Education: Values, Program, Reflection and Implication’ (2021) 11(1) Indonesian Journal of Islam and Muslim Societies <https://doi.org/: 10.18326/ijims.v11i1.185-207> DOI: https://doi.org/10.18326/ijims.v11i1.185-207
Saritoprak Z, ‘Dignity: An Islamic Perspective’ 2020 <https://zekisaritoprak.com/dignity-an-islamic-perspective/> accessed 8 March 2024 DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv19m64x1.15
<https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv19m64x1.15>
Schacht J, An Introduction to Islamic Law (Oxford University Press 1964).
Schroeder D and Bani-Sadr A, Dignity in the 21st Century: Middle East and West (Springer Nature, 2017) <https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-58020-3> DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-58020-3
Seth S, ‘Beyond Belief: Secularism, Religion and Our Muddled Modernity,’ (2022) Postcolonial Studies <https://doi.org/10.1080/13688790.2022.2035924> DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13688790.2022.2035924
Shabana A, Custom in Islamic Law and Legal Theory: The Development of the Concepts of `Urf and `Adah in the Islamic Legal Tradition (Palgrave Macmillan 2010) <https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230117341> DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230117341
Shaw MN, International Law (8th edn, Cambridge University Press 2017).
Sheriff VF, ‘Concept of Human Dignity in Islamic Thought’ (2019) 3(1) International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science.
Sinder R, ‘An Islamic Notion of Natural Law: On Teleological Natural Law Thinking in ṳsṻl al-fiqh’ (2021) 10 Oxford Journal of Law and Religion <https://doi.org/10.1093/ojlr/rwac007> DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/ojlr/rwac007
Smith PS, ‘Of War and Peace: The Hudaibiya Model of Islamic Diplomacy’ (2006) 18(1) Florida Journal of International Law.
Strawson J, ‘Encountering Islamic Law’ 1996 <http://www.uel.ac.uk/faculties/socsci/law/jsrps.html> accessed 8 March 2024.
Strazzari F, ‘Between ‘Messy Aftermath’ and ‘Frozen Conflicts’: Chimera and Realities of Sustainable Peace’ (2008) 2 Human Security Journal.
Travers PD and Rebore RW, Foundations of Education, Becoming a Teacher (Prentice Hall 1990).
Van Engeland A, ‘The Differences and Similarities Between International Humanitarian Law and Islamic Humanitarian Law: Is There Ground for Reconciliation?’ (2008) 10(1) Journal of Islamic Studies and Culture <https://doi.org/10.1080/15288170701878300> DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/15288170701878300
Wagemakers J, ’The Transformation of a Radical Concept: al-wala’ wa-l-bara’ in the Ideology of Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi’ in Meijer R (ed) Global Salafism: Islam’s New Religious Movement (Oxford Academic 2014) <https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199333431.003.0004>
Walzer M, Just and Unjust Wars: A Moral Argument with Historical Illustrations (Basic Books 2000).
Weeramantry CG, Islamic Jurisprudence: An International Perspective (Palgrave Macmillan 1998).
Weiss BG, ‘Exotericism and Objectivity in Islamic Jurisprudence’ in Heer N (ed) Islamic Law and Jurisprudence (University of Washington Press 1990).
Westbrook DA, ‘Islamic International Law and Public International Law: Separate Expressions of World Order’ (1993) 33 Virginia Journal of International Law.
Wexler J, Our Non-Christian Nation: How Wiccans, Satanists, Atheists, and Others Are Demanding Their Rightful Place in Public Life (Stanford University Press 2019) <https://doi.org/10.1515/9781503609068> DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9781503609068
Yazdani A, ‘The Culture of Peace and Religious Tolerance from an Islamic Perspective’ (2020) 47 Veritas
Zweigert K and Kotz H, Introduction to Comparative Law—Volume 1 (Clarendon Press 1987).
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
