Topics
Browse articles and historical references by subject.
Sources & methods ↗
Start with the document. Learn to distinguish an opinion, a judgment, a statute and an account of how law works in practice.
Writing and authority in The Calligraphic State →What a history of legal formation has to explain →Two provincial courts in Ottoman Anatolia →Forty-one documents and several layers of description →Reading Islamic law in context →Opinion, judgment, statute: identify the source →A small toolkit for open research →Historical references →Family law ↗
Marriage, divorce and recognition across legal systems, with attention to jurisdiction, procedure and the lives behind the cases.
The 2022 weddings report: from buildings to officiants →Overseas divorce and the structure of the 1986 Act →Marriage registration: separate the steps in the 1949 Act →The 2018 sharia review and the importance of its remit →Aleem v. Aleem: recognition, public policy and property →Akhter v. Khan: read the case through the appeal →Historical references →Women & authority ↗
Research on legal learning, gender and institutions. Read situated accounts rather than assuming a single experience.
A year in the court of Aintab →Women and the transmission of religious knowledge →Gender and legal opinions in Ottoman Syria and Palestine →Algerian women and the making of colonial legal categories →Women judges: comparing institutions and working lives →Women, learning and authority in China's Hui communities →Historical references →Manuscripts & history ↗
The material life of legal texts: catalogues, copies, marginal notes, translation and the histories of collections.
Land sales in a Bahrain register, 1913–1921 →Legal documents in the Arabic Papyrology Database →Islamic law and colonial negotiation in Hussin’s account →The Cairo Genizah and the history of legal transactions →FIHRIST: Arabic script is not a subject category →Princeton’s Islamic manuscripts and the history of a collection →A volume can contain more than one legal text →The Mingana Collection beyond a single manuscript →Yemeni legal manuscripts and the work of digitization →An official school of law in the Ottoman Empire →Law, empire and secularism in modern South Asia →Editors, print and the making of Islamic classics →From a manuscript catalogue to a research claim →Translation is part of the legal argument →Historical references →Finance & institutions ↗
Contracts, regulation and institutional design. Follow the documents behind familiar financial labels.
Shamil Bank and the wording of a governing-law clause →Dallah: who agreed to arbitrate? →What IFSB-10 meant by a governance system →The asset in infrastructure finance →Islamic finance in the IMF’s 2015 overview →Islamic finance: follow the contract →Historical references →Law & society ↗
Courts, religious accommodation and public debate. Keep social practice, legal reasoning and political claims in view.
A half-inch beard and the evidence in Holt v. Hobbs →Abercrombie: motive, knowledge and a headscarf →Achbita and Bougnaoui: two questions behind one headline →WABE and Müller: the need behind a neutrality policy →Eweida: four applications, four factual settings →Shergill v. Khaira and the boundary of a civil dispute →Read a roundtable as a conversation →Trace a judgment, not just a headline →Historical references →