Details
- Provides an examination of the relationship between Islam and certain key elements of modern constitutionalism in the Western tradition from both a historical and a contemporary perspective
- Undertakes a comprehensive comparative survey of the scope, meaning and application of certain clauses, which define the role of Islam and the Sharia within a number of carefully selected constitutions in order to determine to what extent, if any, they have effectively shaped the operation of the constitutional systems of their respective countries
- Provides country-specific case studies on the relationship between Islam on the one hand and the rule of law and human rights on the other, within contemporary Islamic societies
- Includes a section to the so-called emerging constitutions, which are often born in times of crisis, and in response to a total or partial breakdown of the state. These constitutions have been drafted or are being drafted with a varying degree of support and assistance from the international community, frequently resulting in a fusion of modern ideas of constitutional government and moderate Islamist concepts
Constitutionalism in Islamic Countries: Between Upheaval and Continuity examines the question of whether something similar to an "Islamic constitutionalism" has emerged out of the political and constitutional upheaval witnessed in many parts of North Africa, the Middle East, and Central and Southern Asia in order to identify its defining features and to assess the challenges it poses to established concepts of constitutionalism. This book offers an integrated analysis of the constitutional experience of Islamic countries, drawing on the methods and insights of comparative constitutional law, Islamic law, international law and legal history. European and United States experiences are used as points of reference against which the peculiar challenges, and the specific answers given to those challenges in the countries surveyed, can be assessed. Whether these concepts can be applied successfully to the often grim political and social realities of their countries will provide invaluable insights into whether such a fusion can be sustained, and may even pave the way for a new era of constitutionalism in Islamic countries.
Readership: Legal: scholars, academics, law students, international law practitioners; mostly in constitutional law, comparative international law, comparative law, human rights law, bill of rights, Islamic law specific areas. Non-legal field: scholars, academics, researchers in political-science, human rights issues.
Rainer Grote is a Senior Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law in Heidelberg and an Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of Gottingen, Germany. He was a Visiting Professor at universities in France (Paris II), Turkey, and Chile and has worked as a legal expert and consultant on law reform projects in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. He is a coeditor of Constitutions of the Countries of the World (OUP) and teaches and writes in the fields of constitutional law, comparative law and public international law.
Tilmann J. Roder is a Senior Research Fellow and Head of the Asia and North Africa Projects of the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law in Heidelberg, Germany. His recent research has focused on the subjects of rule of law and constitution building in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Libya, and Kashmir. Together with Rainer Grote he organizes an ongoing series of lectures on Law & Development. He holds a law degree from Humboldt University of Berlin and a doctorate degree from Goethe University Frankfurt.
"This is an ambitious, almost brash, collection. It seeks to bring together historical, legal, religious, political, and philosophical analysis in order to understand both the relationship between Islam and constitutionalism and the actual constitutional experiences of Muslim societies. The editors and contributors are to be commended for pooling their efforts to produce both breadth and depth. This will be a standard reference on the subject for many years to come."
--Nathan J. Brown, Professor of Political Science and International Affairs, George Washington University
"This volume is, without a doubt, the new standard for the field of constitutionalism and Islamic law. It is comprehensive in scope, sophisticated in its application and subtle in its identification of problems. It gathers in one place the absolute top authorities on the historical, conceptual, legal and political dimensions of constitutionalism in the Muslim world. There is no other single volume which comes close to accomplishing what this one has."
--Andrew March, Associate Professor of Political Science, Yale University
"This book is a solid, comprehensive, and enticing contribution to constitutionalism in the Muslim world. Some chapters provide novel and detailed studies of countries which have rarely been the subject of serious interest, and others revisit the experience of modern constitutionalism in places like Iran and Egypt with a fresh view drawn from the experience of constitutional courts and councils. Roder and Grote have succeeded in bringing in one volume an impressive collection of scholarly contributions in an understudied and crucial field at a time of great upheaval-and great need-in the Middle East and the Muslim world at large."
--Chibli Mallat, The Custodian of the Two Holy Places Visiting Professor in Islamic Legal Studies, Harvard Law School
