Islamic Law and the Challenge of Modernity By Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad and Barbara Freyer Stowasser, eds. (Lanham, MD: AltaMira Press, 2004. 264 pages.)

Abstract

This book includes eight articles on various aspects of Islamic law in the
modern world, as well as an introduction by the two editors. The articles grew out of a symposium held at Georgetown University in 2001 under the title of
“Arab Legal Systems in Transition.” Despite the book’s title, however, it
deals exclusively with the Arab world.
That said, the articles are generally very interesting and, in some cases,
provocative. Wael Hallaq’s article is the most provocative, for he suggests
that because the traditional socioeconomic infrastructure that supported the
Shari`ah as a social institution in the pre-modern world has vanished in the
face of the centralized state, the Shari`ah cannot be restored without revolutionary
institutional changes in the Arab state that would, at a minimum,
give religious scholars the institutional independence to formulate a legitimate
vision of Islamic law.

While there can be little disagreement with Hallaq’s observation that the
traditional institutions are gone and will not return, I am not sure why he
assumes that the only type of legitimate Islamic law is one formulated by an
independent class of jurists. May it not be the case that a centralized state,
subject to democratic controls, could formulate positive legislation that conforms
in a meaningful sense with the Shari`ah’s principles? After all, legal
modernity has generally meant the rise of positive law at the expense of
judge-made law, with the former greatly eclipsing the latter in importance
and prestige. It is highly improbable that Islamic countries could, even if
they wished, escape the need for ever more positive legislation to cope with
the unique problems posed by modern social organization ...