Islamic Law in Comparative Perspectives: Milestones, Methods, and Epistemologies

From 3-4 July 2025, the institute hosted a symposium to honour Prof. Nadjma Yassari and her extensive and influential research on Islamic law, as well as her outstanding contributions to the field of comparative law. It was organized by the Institute’s Centre of Expertise for the Law of Arab and Islamic Countries headed by Dr. Dörthe Engelcke.

The symposium also served as an opportunity to reflect on the groundbreaking work of the research group “Changes in God’s Law – An Inner-Islamic Comparison of Family and Succession Laws” which Yassari led from 2009-2024 at the Institute, before she assumed the role of director at the Swiss Institute of Comparative Law (SICL) in Lausanne. It featured several panels that explored the past, present, and future of these disciplines together with former members of the research group, colleagues, and long-standing collaborators.

The symposium began with a keynote speech by Yassari, in which she reflected on three decades of scholarship in Islamic legal traditions, the joy of founding the research group—which created space for plural and interdisciplinary engagement with Islamic legal thought—and the pain of ongoing asymmetries—such as the marginalization of Islamic law in legal theory, the burden of post-9/11 visibility, and the persistence of Eurocentric frameworks that continue to shape comparative law. While wishing for a more self-aware legal scholarship, she urged to remain open to uncertainty as a pathway to deeper inclusion and epistemic repair.

The first panel “25 Years of Research on Islamic Law at the MPI – Building a Regional Department in a Western Institution”, chaired by Dr. Lena-Maria Möller (Qatar University), reflected on research, mentorship, institutional challenges, and future directions of Islamic law within a Western comparative framework. Prof. Nadjma Yassari traced the genesis and evolution of the Department for the Laws of Islamic Countries, her main motivations and visions as well as the challenges when founding the research group within a Western comparatist institution. She showed how the research focus evolved over the 25 years, while navigating the diversity of Islamic legal systems and under the impact of global events like 9/11 and the Arab Spring. Dr. Kilian Bälz (Amereller Law Firm) and Dr. Karim El Chazli (SICL) offered practitioner and hybrid academic insights, emphasizing the Department’s practical relevance and the importance of informed expertise for legal theory and practice. Dr. Dominik Krell (University of Oxford) spoke to the Department’s role in mentoring early-career researchers and fostering a scholarly community in a niche area of law. The panel closed with a discussion of the future of Islamic law research and personal reflections on the lasting impact of the Department and Yassari’s leadership in shaping the field.

The second panel “Where Do We Stand? The Current State of Research on Normative Systems in Muslim-Majority Countries”, chaired by Prof. Irene Schneider (Universities of Göttingen and Erfurt), focused on research gaps in the study of Islamic law and law in Muslim-majority countries. Prof. Muhammad Fadl (University of Toronto) pointed to the need for more information on the effectiveness of judiciary systems, the stance of religious figures between state rules and Islamic law, and the application of uncodified Islamic law by judges within modern statutory law. Prof. Martin Lau (SOAS/University of London) highlighted major gaps in the knowledge of South Asian legal history, pointing to the legal dimensions of Islam’s material aspects, the role of Islam in the architecture of colonial legal systems, and the laws about Islam as a religion itself. Schneider reflected on methodological challenges in studying Islamic law and legal history within colonial contexts, urging scholars to move beyond Eurocentric frameworks and the coloniality of scholarship through a careful choice of analytical categories and an increased awareness of conceptual history, cultural translation, and the entanglement of legal concepts.

In her lecture “Christian and Islamic Law in Comparative Perspective: Methodological Challenges and Empirical Insights” Dr. Dörthe Engelcke addressed the comparative study of Christian and Islamic family law within legally pluralistic systems in the SWANA region. Structured around four analytical dimensions— ontology and epistemology, the “geography” of legislation and adjudication, lived experiences of inheritance and intersectionality, and empirical data on inheritance practices—she offered a multi-layered framework for exami­nation. In her lecture Engelcke demonstrated that epistemic approaches to Christian law are shaped by three key structuring forces: state-law pluralism, the coloniality embedded in the minority question, and the family law norms of Christian communities.

The third panel “Reflections on Comparative Law: Insights from Islamic Legal Studies and Perspectives on Methodology and Knowledge Production”, chaired by Prof. Nadjma Yassari, brought together Prof. Rodrigo Polanco Lazo (SICL), Prof. Gianluca Parolin (Aga Khan University, UK), and Dr. Ilaria Pretelli (SICL), and foregrounded traditions often treated as peripheral within comparative law. Latin American legal thought was highlighted for its critical engagement with European models, Islamic legal studies for its deep internal jurisprudence, and European private international law for its capacity to reflect on its own normative assumptions. All three panelists also pointed to persistent asymmetries in the field. Latin American law is often seen as derivative, Islamic law as too “other” to compare, and European frameworks tend to universalize their own assumptions as neutral. These patterns shape how authority and relevance are assigned in comparative work. In closing, the panel invited a shift toward more plural and dialogical comparative practices. The future of compara­tive law, the panelists suggested, lies in sustained openness to legal diversity.

Images: © Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law