I'm thrilled to announce that the latest issue of Law & Society Review, co-edited by Tamir Moustafa (SFU) and myself, is now online. Of interest to scholars of judicial politics, law and society studies, and Islamic law.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/15405893/2…
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/15405893/2…
Mona Oraby (Amherst College) examines state regulation of Islamic family law in Egypt, finding that bureaucratic interventions in matters of marriage, divorce, and conversion help to produce many of the "problems" they are ostensibly meant to address.
Katherine Lemons (McGill) shows how religious and secular courts in India, which appear to be contradictory or functionally distinct, in fact collaborate in a broader project of secular rule.
Drawing on vast ethnographic research, Michael Peletz (Emory) argues that women in Malaysia have made real advances in their struggle for justice in Islamic courts. But what *kind* of justice are we talking about? Peletz reveals a complex and fascinating story.
Focusing as well on Malaysia, Tamir Moustafa lays out a theoretical framework for making sense of what he calls the "judicialization of religion". What happens when courts are put in charge of deciding religious matters? Who benefits? Who loses out? And why?
Lastly, I draw on evidence from Sudan to show how the project of incorporating Islamic law into the state opened up new strategies of political rule. But far from seeking to make Islamic law "legible", state intervention often entailed the precise opposite.
All this, plus reviews of recent books by Nimer Sultany, Sarah Eltantawi, Matthew Erie, and more. Pick up your copy today wherever fine academic journals are sold.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/15405893/2…
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/15405893/2…
