This volume offers an examination of the legal system of Saudi Arabia, not only for its own sake but also as a case study for insight into past and present Islamic legal systems.

In this landmark publication, the world's leading expert in the legal system of Saudi Arabia explains and documents the uncodified principles of contract, tort, and property that frame the business laws of the Kingdom. Drawing on 8,500 newly published court decisions, as well as on statutory law, interviews and a wide range of other material, the book sets out to determine the actual practice of Saudi courts in these spheres, both substantively and as to reasoning and procedure. With unique insights into and understanding of this fascinating jurisdiction, this book simply must be read by all engaged with law or business in the region. Also, given its focus on how certain Islamic legal rules and principles are applied in practice, the book will prove an invaluable resource for scholars of Islamic law past and present.

Richard A. Debs analyzes the classical Islamic law of property based on the Shari'ah, traces its historic development in Egypt, and describes its integration as a source of law within the modern format of a civil code. He focuses specifically on Egypt, a country in the Islamic world that drew upon its society's own vigorous legal system as it formed its modern laws. He also touches on issues that are common to all such societies that have adopted, either by choice or by necessity, Western legal systems. Egypt's unique synthesis of Western and traditional elements is the outcome of an effort to respond to national goals and requirements. Its traditional law, the Shari'ah, is the fundamental law of all Islamic societies, and Debs's analysis of Egypt's experience demonstrates how Islamic jurisprudence can be sophisticated, coherent, rational, and effective, developed over centuries to serve the needs of societies that flourished under the rule of law.

The Saudi legal system is on the verge of the arguably most significant transformation in its history: There are reports that Saudi Arabia will soon introduce a binding codification of Islamic law that will encompass private law, criminal law, and family law. Until now, large areas of Islamic law have remained uncodified. Judges refer to Islamic jurisprudence in their judgments, which are full of references to medieval and late medieval legal treatises like Ibn Qudāma’s (d. 1223) book al-mughnī or al-Bahūtī’s (d. 1641) kashshāf al-qanāᶜ. In areas that have not been addressed by Islamic jurisprudence in the past, the Saudi government has issued codes (anẓima, sing. niẓām) that resemble European laws. For example, there is written labor law and commercial code.

Through his analysis, Vogel (Harvard Law School) develops a framework of concepts, rooted in both Islamic and western legal theory, useful for the comparative description and analysis of Islamic legal systems and applications, past and present. He draws on five years of research in which he investigated the Kingdom's legal system both for its own sake and as a series of case studies of the application of an Islamic legal system. Case studies were selected for their usefulness of comparison to western law. Annotation copyrighted by Book News Inc., Portland, OR

This book analyses the general interaction between international law and Islamic law in the Muslim world today. It interrogates factors that often form the root of the tension between the two legal regimes. Literalist interpretations of Islamic law and the modern international law's disposition that does not give due consideration to differences among cultures and civilizations are some of these factors. This work examines the Saudi Arabia textualist approach to the two primary sources of law in Islam, the Qur’an and Sunnah, and argues that a liberal approach of interpretation has become sine qua non especially now that myriad issues are confronting the Muslim world generally and Saudi Arabia in particular. Similarly, globalization has generated an unprecedented multi-culturalism, legal-pluralism, and trans-border interactions in socio-economic and political relations. Therefore, Saudi Arabia, as the bastion of Islam and Islamic nations, is faced with the imperative of adopting a liberal approach to interpretation of Islamic law, with a view to accommodating a wide spectrum of other laws and cultures. The book provides a timely examination of the issue of modern Saudi Arabia, Islamic legal order vis-à-vis the contemporary concept of international law and international relations in specific areas such as international human rights law and trans-national economic matters. As such it will be of interest to academics and researchers working in Islamic law, international and comparative law, human rights law, and law and religion.