Any political, economic, and social changes in a country could be followed by legal responses in the form of new legislation, policies or new court judgements. Islamic law plays a leading role in Islamic countries where the state’s legal policies are supposedly decided according to the rules and principles of Islam. This is confirmed by the existence of a constitutional principle in many Islamic countries that prevents the adoption of legislation that contradicts the principles of Islam. In this context, the biggest challenge for any legislation is its compatibility with Islam.
Meanwhile, the Islamic legal tradition has also been a source of change in non-Muslim countries. This could be due to the presence of Muslim minorities or the need to adopt Islamic legal norms to improve aspects of life in non-Muslim states. An apparent example of this is when many non-Muslim countries adopted Islamic financial tools to solve the problems inherent in the non-Islamic financial systems, such as the adoption of Sukuk in the UK and many other Western countries.
Starting from Summer of 2023, the Manchester Journal of Transnational Islamic Law & Practice (MJTILP) will dedicate a special section to recent legal developments in the forthcoming regular issues. Contributors are invited to submit short papers that offer insights, scholarship, and critical analysis of the current or most recent legal reforms and new laws in any country having transnational implications for Islamic law or Muslims generally. Contributors are expected to provide background information about the legal change or law being examined. They should explain the previous state of the law and the underlying policy for changing it. Additionally, they should identify legal developments in the light of thinking of traditional Islamic schools of jurisprudence and current international sources, and discuss the possible impact on the law and society. Contributors may also delve into the intricacies of Islamic law and its relationship with contemporary economic and social developments, and how societal norms and values and their intersections with international sources are reflected in the development of legal frameworks.
For more information, please see the attached document.
