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Kuran, “The Long Divergence: How Islamic Law Held Back the Middle East”

This November, Princeton University Press will publish The Long Divergence: How Islamic Law Held Back the Middle East by Timur Kuran (Duke University). The publisher’s description follows.

In the year 1000, the economy of the Middle East was at least as advanced as that of Europe. But by 1800, the region had fallen dramatically behind–in living standards, technology, and economic institutions. In short, the Middle East had failed to modernize economically as the West surged ahead. What caused this long divergence? And why does the Middle East remain drastically underdeveloped compared to the West? In The Long Divergence, one of the world’s leading experts on Islamic economic institutions and the economy of the Middle East provides a new answer to these long-debated questions.

Timur Kuran argues that what slowed the economic development of the Middle East was not colonialism or geography, still less Muslim attitudes or some incompatibility between Islam and capitalism. Rather, starting around the tenth century, Islamic legal institutions, which had benefitted the Middle Eastern economy in the early centuries of Islam, began to act as a drag on development by slowing or blocking the emergence of central features of modern economic life–including private capital accumulation, corporations, large-scale production, and impersonal exchange. By the nineteenth century, modern economic institutions began to be transplanted to the Middle East, but its economy has not caught up. And there is no quick fix today. Low trust, rampant corruption, and weak civil societies–all characteristic of the region’s economies today and all legacies of its economic history–will take generations to overcome.

The Long Divergence opens up a frank and honest debate on a crucial issue that even some of the most ardent secularists in the Muslim world have hesitated to discuss.

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Cook, Haider, Rabb, & Sayeed, “Law and Tradition in Classical Islamic Though: Studies in Honor of Professor Hossein Modarressi”

This January, Plagrave Macmillan Publishing will publish Law and Tradition in Classical Islamic Though: Studies in Honor of Professor Hossein Modarressi edited by Michael Cook (Princeton University), Najam Haider (Barnard College), Intisar Rabb (New York University School of Law), and Asma Sayeed (University of California, Los Angeles). The publisher’s description follows.

This collection brings together the work of some of the most prominent legal scholars and historians of Islam. The assembled articles cover a wide range of issues from debates over the Qur’anic text and issues of law to vibrant intellectual exchanges in philosophy and history. Taken together, these articles develop key inquiries surrounding Islamic law and tradition in unique ways. They also exemplify a critical development in the field of Islamic Studies over the last few decades: the proliferation of methodological approaches that employ a broad variety of sources to analyze social and political developments in classical Islam.

Posted on by Mark Movsesian

Vischer Named Dean at St. Thomas

Good news from Minnesota: our friend and former St. John’s faculty member Rob Vischer will be the next dean of University of St. Thomas School of Law. Rob will take over from interim dean Neil Hamilton on January 1. Rob is one of the nation’s leading law and religion scholars, having written an important recent book on conscience protections (the subject of a symposium in the Journal of Catholic Legal Studies), and a new book on Martin Luther King to be released next month. Congrats, Rob — and Congrats, St. Thomas!

Posted on by JCPW

Marshall, “Global Institutions of Religion: Ancient Movers, Modern Shakers”

In February, Routledge will publish Global Institutions of Religion: Ancient Movers, Modern Shakers by Katherine Marshall (Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs at Georgetown U). The publisher’s description follows.

This work fills a significant gap in the current literature by providing a concise introduction to religious institutions and an insightful analysis of their role in world affairs. Focusing on formal institutions specifically dedicated to governing religious communities, the work examines the intersections between religious and other global institutions, set against the fundamental question: why and how do these intersections matter?

The work explores the role of religion within key issues including: Human rights, Human security, International development and humanitarian relief, Climate change, Moral responsibilities.

The new forms that religious institutions are taking, their fit with human rights and democratic ideals, their changing nature in plural societies, are a highly relevant part of the global institutional picture and this book is essential reading for all students and scholars of global institutions, international relations and religion.

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Samuel, “The OIC, the UN, and Counter-Terrorism Law-Making: Conflicting or Cooperative Legal Norms?”

Next August, Hart Publishing will publish The OIC, the UN, and Counter-Terrorism Law-Making: Conflicting or Cooperating Legal Norms? by Katja Samuel (barrister, UK). The publisher’s description follows.

The increasingly transnational nature of terrorist activities compels the international community to strengthen the legal framework in which counter-terrorist activities should occur, including at the intergovernmental level.

This unique, timely, and carefully researched monograph examines one such important intergovernmental organisation, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (‘OIC’, formerly the Organisation of the Islamic Conference). In particular, it analyses in depth its institutional counter-terrorist law-making practice, and the relationship between resultant OIC law and comparable UN norms. Furthermore, it explores two common (mis)assumptions regarding the OIC, namely whether its internal institutional weaknesses mean that its law-making practice is inconsequential at the intergovernmental level, and whether its self-declared Islamic objectives and nature are reflected within OIC law.

Where significant normative tensions are discerned between OIC and UN law – for example, the definitional impasse posed by the OIC in relation to the ongoing negotiations of the draft UN Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism – the monograph explores not only whether these may be explicable, at least in part, to the OIC’s Islamic nature, but also whether their corresponding institutional legal orders are conflicting or cooperative in nature, and the resultant implications for the international counter-terrorist framework.

This monograph is expected to appeal especially to national and intergovernmental counter-terrorist practitioners and policy-makers, and to all scholars interested in the interaction of Islamic norms within the wider international political system.

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Moon on Christianity, Multiculturalism, and National Identity

Richard Moon (University of Windsor Law) has posted Christianity, Multiculturalism, and National Identity: A Canadian Comment on Lautsi v. Italy. The abstract follows.

The Lautsi decision reflects the deep ambivalence in Western liberal democracies about religion and its relationship to politics. Like the Canadian courts, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) seems to recognize that religion and politics should be separated but that this separation can never be total. While the ECtHR and the Supreme Court of Canada rely at least formally on a similar test for determining a breach of religious freedom (a test that emphasizes the state’s obligation to remain neutral in spiritual matters) their application of the test is guided by different understandings of the public/political significance of religion and more particularly the relationship between religion, civic values, and national identity. The Court in Lautsi seems to accept, or at least acquiesce in, two claims made by the Italian government about the meaning of the crucifix: that it symbolizes the Italian national identity, which is tied to its history as a Christian or Roman Catholic nation, and that it symbolizes the Christian foundation of the civic/secular values of the Italian political community – the values of democracy and tolerance. Behind the claim that the crucifix is not simply a religious symbol but also a symbol of the Italian identity and political culture, is the draw of a thicker or richer form of national identity than that offered by civic nationalism. The assumption is that Italians are held together in a political community not simply by their shared commitment to liberal values or democratic institutions but by a common culture rooted in a religious tradition. Religion and politics are joined at the core of national identity and the root of political obligation. This link between religion and politics, though, rests on the problematic claim that the values of democracy and tolerance emerged directly from Christianity (and are the logical, even necessary, outcome of Christian doctrine) and the disturbing claim that Christianity is uniquely tied to these values. While religion does sometimes intersect with politics in Canada, it no longer plays a role in the definition of the country’s national identity. Canada, sometime ago, embraced multiculturalism as the defining feature of its national identity and liberal-democratic values as its political bond. There is no doubt that Canada’s moral/social culture has been shaped in different ways by the Christian faith of earlier generations, nevertheless any attempt to formally link Canadian national identity to a particular religious tradition would run against the country’s self-conception as a multicultural (multi-faith) society.

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Durham, Kirkham & Lindholm (eds.), “Islam and Political-Cultural Europe”

This December, Ashgate Publishing will publish Islam and Political-Cultural Europe edited by W. Cole Durham Jr. (BYU – J. Reuben Clark Law School), David M. Kirkham (BYU – J. Reuben Clark Law School), and Tore Lindholm (University of Oslo, Norway). The publisher’s description follows.

Islam and Political-Cultural Europe identifies the sometimes confusing and often contentious new challenges that arise in daily life and institutions as Islam settles deeper into Europe. Critiquing past and recent assimilation efforts in the fields of education, finance, and security, the contributors offer prospective solutions to diverse contemporary problems. Exploring the interactions of Muslim, Christian and secular cultures in the context of highly pluralized contemporary European societies, this book offers a valuable tool for those within and outside Europe seeking to understand the far-reaching implications of combining cultures, the struggles of the Muslim-Christian-secular transition, and the progress which the future promises.

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Kwall on Jewish Tradition as Intellectual Property

Roberta Rosenthal Kwall (DePaul University College of Law) has posted Is the Jewish Tradition Intellectual Property?  The abstract follows.

Whether works of authorship should be protected from unauthorized changes and, if so, in what manner, are questions of endless fascination to intellectual property scholars. Jewish law is not typically considered a “work of authorship” although in many ways it can be so viewed. This article is concerned with exploring the Jewish tradition as intellectual or cultural property. It focuses on the human dimension of creativity embodied in the Jewish tradition, and how that dimension is manifested in the rabbinic interpretation of Jewish law. The resulting tradition — as it is embodied in both the Jewish texts and lived by the people — has afforded the Jewish people their unique identity throughout the ages. Simply put, the Jewish tradition is a very unique form of cultural property. This analytical framework has significant implications for how to negotiate the balance between preservation and development of the tradition.

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Zimmerman, “Other Dreams of Freedom”

Next month, Oxford University Press will publish Other Dreams of Freedom:  Religion, Sex, and Human Trafficking by Yvonne C. Zimmerman (Methodist Theological School, Ohio).  The publisher’s description follows.

Human trafficking has captured worldwide attention as a crucial moral and political issue, but perhaps nowhere more than in the United States. Since they were signed into law in 2000, U.S. federal laws and policies on human trafficking have been understood as concrete expressions of the civic values of personal and political freedom. Yet these policies have also been characterized by a marked preoccupation with regulation, and especially sexual regulation.

Yvonne C. Zimmerman offers a groundbreaking exploration of the relationship between freedom and sexual regulation in American anti-human trafficking law and policies. . She argues that the religious values of American Protestantism have indelibly shaped the federal government’s approach to engaging human trafficking, and that the trajectory of the U.S.’s anti-trafficking efforts cannot be fully grasped without understanding the unique ways in which sex, morality, and freedom are connected in Protestant Christian configurations of morality. Zimmerman shows that particularly under the George W. Bush administration, the U.S.’s anti-trafficking project expressed a vision of freedom whose structure and logic is thoroughly Protestant. . Her analysis challenges the assumption that combating human trafficking necessarily entails sexual regulation, and reveals the extent to which the preoccupation with sexual regulation has functioned to discourage alternative understandings and practices of freedom, particularly for women.

Other Dreams of Freedom demonstrates that if opposition to human trafficking takes the promotion of freedom as the point of departure, then freedom must not be identified strictly with religiously and culturally Protestant understandings, but ought also permit other understandings of how freedom is constituted, practiced, and maintained.

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Cumper & Lewis (eds.), “Religion, Rights and Secular Society”

This December, Edward Elgar Publishing will publish Religion, Rights and Secular Society: European Perspectives edited by Peter Cumper (University of Leicester, UK) and Tom Lewis (Nottingham Trent University, UK).   The publisher’s description follows.

This topical collection of chapters examines secular society and the legal protection of religion and belief across Europe, both in general and more nation-specific terms.

The expectations of many that religion in modern Europe would be swept away by the powerful current of secularization have not been realised, and today few topics generate more controversy than the complex relationship between religious and secular values. The ‘religious/secular’ relationship is examined in this book, which brings together scholars from different parts of Europe and beyond to provide insights into the methods by which religion and equivalent beliefs have been, and continue to be, protected in the legal systems and constitutions of European nations. The contributors’ chapters reveal that the oft-tumultuous legacy of Europe’s relationship with religion still resonates across a continent where legal, political and social contours have been powerfully shaped by faith and religious difference.

Covering recent controversies such as the Islamic headscarf, and the presence of the crucifix in school class-rooms, this book will appeal to academics and students in law, human rights and the social sciences, as well as law and policy makers and NGOs in the field of human rights.