ILS Conference
The Sixth ILS Conference, “Islamic Law and Custom,” will take place from January 30—February 1, 2009, at NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad, India.
The VI International Conference on Islamic Legal Studies addresses the relationship of Islamic law to custom and customary law. This relationship is pervasive but still poorly understood. The goal of the conference is to improve the capacity of the field to observe, describe, analyze, and further explore this relationship.
Specific interactions of custom and Islamic law
Presentations will be given that explore when, where, and how Islamic law and custom interact by treating a specific instance of custom or customary law while at the same time engaging the applicable Islamic law (discourse, literature, categories, authorities, institutions, actors) as it interacts or interfaces with that instance. Interactions include not only approval or rejection but also competition, adaptation, compromise, borrowing, interdependence, complementarity, etc. Customs of interest include those arising from and followed by Islamic legal authorities and institutions themselves.
The theory, doctrine, and practice of Islamic law vis-à-vis “custom”
Presentations focusing on how Islamic fiqh, whether at the level of theory, doctrine, authorities, institutions, or practices and whether during specific historical episodes or more broadly, has dealt with custom as a category, in one or more of its many manifestations, will also be given. The reverse of this – the treatment of custom and customary law in detail but Islamic fiqh and its implementations only in the abstract – is not on offer.
Custom and customary law perform many different functions and appear in many contexts in Muslim legal history and Islamic legal discourse. Similarly terms like ‘urf, ‘ada and ‘amal are used in highly diverse ways. The conference hopes to identify and distinguish among varied spheres and usages of custom.
As soon as information regarding registration and attendance is available from our host institution - expected in July - it will be posted. Stay tuned.