Courses@Boalt
NOTE: Course offerings change. Classes offered this semester may not be offered in future semesters.264.96 sec. 1 - Islamic and Middle Eastern Law (Spring 2011)
Instructor: Andrea Buechler (view instructor's profile)
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Units: 3
Meeting Time: MW 10:00-12:40
Meeting Location: 134
Course Start: January 10, 2011
Course End: April 01, 2011
Course Control Number (Non-1Ls): 49813
"Islamic and Middle Eastern Law" gives an overview of classical Islamic law and its current development and application in Middle Eastern countries. The course is structured in four articulating parts. The first part of the course covers the historical foundations of Islam, the Sunni schools of legal thoughts and the methodological aspects of Islamic law (usul al- fiqh). We look closely at the political and legal developments of the past two centuries in the Middle East, at the periods of reform, nationalisation and reislamisation, and at the present constitutional setup with regard to the commitment to Islamic law and its impact on national law and legal practice. The second part of the course focuses on particular fields of law and looks at traditional institutions and understandings of Islamic law and at the specific codification and practice in selected countries of the Middle East. Islamic family and inheritance law is a main focus of this course as it is currently practiced in most Middle Eastern countries in a more or less classical form, but criminal law is also taken into account. In the third part of the course we will discuss the fields of tension between human rights and Islamic law. We will analyse modern hemeneutical approaches to the religious sources and Muslim voices in the human rights debate, and engage with the perspectives of Islamic law. In the fourth and final part, the course will address legal issues arising in the context of migration from Islamic countries: questions of International private law, of arbitration in family law matters, and the claim for legal and normative pluralism.
Andrea B��chler joined the University of Zurich as Professor of Law in 2002. Her areas of research are: Family Law, Law of Persons, Comparative Law, Islamic and Middle Eastern Law, Medicine and Law, and Legal Gender Studies. She founded the Center for Islamic and Middle Eastern Legal Studies at the Faculty of Law of the University of Zurich in 2008. She was the co-director of the scientific board of the University Priority Research Programme ��Asia and Europe��, and is the on-site director of the Law Summer School Cairo. In 2003, she co-founded the Center for Family Sciences, a Switzerland-wide association which initiates, conducts and supports high-quality research in the field of the family. She has been the co-leader of the training as a specialist solicitor in family law since 2007. She was awarded a fellowship at the Institute of Advanced Studies, Berlin, for the academic year 2008/2009 and is currently a fellow of the Collegium Helveticum ETH/UZH.
Prerequisites:
None
This course satisfies the Constitutional Law Requirement.
Exam Notes: TH/P
Course Category: International and Comparative Law
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