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HDS 3614

Constitutional Courts of the Arab World: Seminar

Baber Johansen

Description

The credibility crisis of the authoritarian state has caused political leaders, from the 1960s on, to look for an institution that could help bring about a partial democratization of the state and a controlled Islamization of the law, i.e. two new sources of state legitimation. Political leaders have assigned this task to constitutional courts or councils. Among these constitutional courts (or constitutional councils) Egypt's Supreme Constitutional Court and the Kuwaiti Constitutional Court have published their jurisprudence regularly. The Egyptian court's published jurisprudence is by far the most voluminous one. As far as the analysis of constitutional jurisprudence is concerned, the Egyptian court will, therefore, constitute the focus of the seminar. The creation of constitutional courts and councils has introduced a new era in the relation between the codified state law and what is called Islamic law. Since the 1870s, Islamic law was mainly limited to the law of family, marriage, and succession. This tendency was accentuated in the Arab modifications of the first half of the 20th century. During the 1960s and 1970s, the introduction, into many Arab constitutions, of an article that makes "the principles of Islamic normativity (mabadi' al-shari'a al-islamiyya) the (main) source of legislation" has given it a much more important vocation: the legislator is supposed to apply the principles of Islamic normativity in all fields of legislation. The constitutional jurisprudence relating to this article has brought about a reinterpretation of what, in the various fields of the law, should be considered "Islamic law," in order to articulate its appropriate relation to the laws and institutions of a democratic state, to human rights, and to international law as developed in the legal theory and praxis of major Western states and international organizations. The last session of the seminar will be dedicated to an assessment of the reasons for the present attacks against Egypt's Supreme Constitutional Court.

Enrollment Limited: No
Open to BTI Students: Yes
Jointly offered through Harvard Law School

Scheduling

Half Course
Not Offered 2009-10
Course times to be announced.
Location to be announced.

Relationship to Program Requirements

Program Requirement	Area / Category / Art / Designation
MTS Area(s) of Focus	Islamic Studies Religion, Ethics, and Politics
MDiv Distribution Category/ies	Islam
MDiv Art(s) of Ministry	none
ThM, pre-2007 MTS, and pre-2005 MDiv Area	Area 3
Language Course Designation(s)	n/a