Criminal Justice Under Shari’ah in the 21st Century – An Inter-Cultural View

Abstract

This paper tries to analyse some of the basic issues arising in the conversation between legal systems based on Shari'ah and those based on secular traditions, as well as the efforts of the law-makers in the former to adapt to changed expectations in modern society. The argument focuses on the area of criminal law and highlights concepts such as hudud crimes, apostasy and al-diyah. The authors advocate an increased dialogue and ultimately the creation of a Centre of Global Ijma as a forum in which Islamic and other legal scholars could meet to discuss their respective approaches to legal issues of global interest in order to avoid unnecessary ideological clashes and to provide a base for global policy-makers to draw upon in their decision-making process.

Keywords: Shari'ah, hudud, al-diyah, ta'zir, ijtihad, ijma, criminal justice, comparative law, Islamic law

JEL Classification: K1