Dieser von der Gesellschaft für Arabisches und Islamisches Recht (GAIR) veröffentlichte und von Hatem Elliesie herausgegebene dreisprachige Band basiert auf einer in Kooperation mit dem Deutschen Institut für Menschenrechte 2007 in Berlin veranstalteten Tagung anlässlich des 10-jährigen Jubiläums der GAIR. Thematisch widmet sich der Band dem Thema «Islam und Menschenrechte», wozu Wissenschaftler und Praktiker aus den unterschiedlichsten Fachgebieten und Ländern beigetragen haben. This trilingual volume, published by the Gesellschaft für Arabisches und Islamisches Recht (GAIR), and edited by Hatem Elliesie, is based on a conference, on the occasion of its 10th Annual Anniversary 2007 in Berlin, carried out in cooperation with the German Institute for Human Rights. The publication addresses the issue of «Islam and Human Rights», to which academics and practioners of various areas of expertise and countries have contributed.

Die Autoren behandeln unter dem Aspekt «Genderforschung und Islamisches Recht» Themenbereiche wie Recht und Geschlecht in der juristischen Geschlechterforschung, Geschlechterrollen in Ehe und Familie, gesellschaftliche Debatten um das Scheidungsrecht in Palästina sowie Islamisches Familienrecht, Personenstand und Islam in Deutschland.

Islamic Law in Past and Present, written by the lawyer and Islamicist Mathias Rohe, is the first comprehensive study for decades on Islamic law, legal theory, reform mechanisms and the application of Islamic law in Islamic countries and the Muslim diaspora. It provides information based on an abundance of Oriental and Western sources regarding family and inheritance law, contract and economic law, penal law, constitutional, administrative and international law. The present situation and ‘law in action’ are highlighted particularly. This includes examples collected during field studies on the application of Islamic law in India, Canada and Germany.

Islam and International Law explores the multi-faceted relationship of Islam and international law. Current debates on Sharia, Islam and the “West” often suffer from prejudice and platitudes. The book seeks to engage such self-centrism by providing a plurality of perspectives, both in terms of interdisciplinary research and geographic backgrounds.

The importance of the rule of law is universally recognised and of fundamental value for most societies. Establishing and promoting the rule of law in the Muslim world, particularly in the Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia, has become a pressing but complicated issue. These states have Muslim majority populations, and the religion of Islam has an important role in the traditional structures of their societies. While the Muslim world is taking gradual steps towards the establishment of rule of law systems, most Muslim majority countries may not yet have effective legal systems with independent judiciaries, which would allow the state and institutions to be controlled by an effective rule of law system. One important aspect of the rule of law is freedom of expression. Given the sensitivity of Muslim societies in relation to their sacred beliefs, freedom of expression, as an international human rights issue, has raised some controversial cases. This book, drawing on both International and Islamic Law, explores the rule of law, and freedom of expression and its practical application in the Muslim world.

With a unique transitional justice perspective on the Arab Spring, this book assesses the relocation of transitional justice from the international paradigm to Islamic legal systems. The Arab uprisings and new and old conflicts in the Middle East, North Africa and other contexts where Islam is a prominent religion have sparked an interest in localising transitional justice in the legal systems of Muslim-majority communities to uncover the truth about past abuse and ensure accountability for widespread human rights violations. This raises pressing questions around how the international paradigm of transitional justice, and in particular its truth-seeking aims, might be implemented and adapted to local settings characterised by Muslim majority populations, and at the same time drawing from relevant norms and principles of Islamic law. This book offers a critical analysis of the relocation of transitional justice from the international paradigm to the legal systems of Muslim-majority societies in light of the inherently pluralistic realities of these contexts. It also investigates synergies between international law and Islamic law in furthering truth-seeking, the formation of collective memories and the victims' right to know the truth, as key aims of the international paradigm of transitional justice and broadly supported by the shari'ah. This book will be a useful reference for scholars, practitioners and policymakers seeking to better understand the normative underpinnings of (potential) transitional truth-seeking initiatives in the legal systems of Muslim-majority societies. At the same time, it also proposes a more critical and creative way of thinking about the challenges and opportunities of localising transitional justice in contexts where the principles and ideas of Islamic law carry different meanings.