History

The International Society for Islamic Legal Studies (ISILS) was conceived in 2003, in Murcia, Spain, during the convening of the Fourth International Conference on Islamic Legal Studies (ILS). A group of participants came together to take steps to establish a more official body for the planning and organizing of the triennial conference that began as the Joseph Schacht Conference on Theory and Practice in Leiden, the Netherlands, in 1994. Since that first conference, organized to attract submissions for the newly launched journal Islamic Law and Society, three more conferences had been organized by the same founding parents of the Leiden conference, who were beginning to feel that they should not be monopolizing the choice of conference theme and location.

In May 2004, articles of organization were filed with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, effectively incorporating the International Society for Islamic Legal Studies. The statutory articles can be found in the Corporate Database (fill in the society’s name) at: www.sec.state.ma.us/cor/coridx.htm.

A temporary board was set up to bolster the fledgling society until elections for the first official Board could take place. The Board was elected during the first Business Meeting in September 2007, during the course of the Fifth ILS Conference on Violence in Islamic Law and History, convened at Harvard Law School. Twenty of the at that time 47 members were present at the first Business Meeting.

The website was launched in December 2007. ISILS is deeply appreciative of those members who contributed funds in addition to membership dues to make the website possible.