Islamic Law Session Opens in Salzburg

Salzburg Global Seminar Session 457, Islamic and International Law: Searching for Common Ground opened in Salzburg today, with nearly 60 participants from 20 countries in attendance. The session will look carefully at the diversity of Islamic legal tradition and the various interpretations of those tradutions, and at the same time will examine the body of modern international law and seek to find a "common neutrality", complementary principles, complementary forms of interpretation.

This program is being conducted in conjunction with the International Bar Association, and as Mark Ellis, the IBA's Executive Director, said last night, we hope this session will help support and further enable a reciprocal understanding of both of these rich traditions in a more nuanced fashion. In addition, we will look specifically at areas where it is not always evident that these traditions may be able to find common ground -- either because of a difference in the letter of the legal traditions or in their various means of interpretation and implementation at the national and sub-national level.

There are, in fact, as Mark Ellis points out, many parallels between the way in which Islamic legal traditions conceptualize the differences between obligations and rights in the Qur'an. In short, in the Islamic legal tradition an individual is able to enjoy the rights ensured by the state and the system of justice by meeting his or her obligations to society. Similarly, under international law, and for example, the UN Declaration on Human Rights, one of the most entrenched and important instruments of the international legal tradition, it is evident that maintenance of a common standard of achievment under the law is the responsibility of all people. As the UN Declaration says: "To the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive ... to promote respect for those rights and freedoms."

During Session 457 we will take up many of these issues, as well looking at more specific areas critical to the accomodation of both legal traditions with one another, including: fundamental rights & freedoms and punishment and inhumane treatment; freedom of expression and freedom of religious belief; women's rights, family law, and personal status laws; and due process, representation, and accountability.

For more information on the program and to read the background paper prepared by the International Bar Association and the Salzburg Global Seminar, please click on the links below:

Session 457 -- Background Note

Session 457 -- Program