In 1995, the Palestinian authority in Gaza and Jericho took its first unambiguous step in the direction of statehood by creating State Security Courts for cases of political violence (especially against Israeli targets). At the same time an assortment of Islamist movements in neighboring Egypt were engaged in a violent struggle with state authorities, with the movements claiming that the failure to implement the Islamic shari'a rendered the regime illegitimate. The regime responded by using all tools available, including, most controversially, military courts to try civilians.

Courts and legal systems have been the focus of intense political struggles in the Arab world, in some locations for over a century. Legal issues are, as everywhere, technical and arcane at times, but just as often they are closely connected to the definition and operation of political power and political community. Residents of the Arab world encounter courts and the legal system in many of their affairs; in fact, they seek out the courts at surprisingly high rates.

This study concerns the role of courts in social and political life in the Arab world. Egypt receives the major focus, but I have also conducted primary research in the Gulf and have included references to other Arab cases in order to cast the argument as widely as possible.

In transliterating Arabic names and terms, I have endeavored above all to be consistent. In general I follow the system suggested by the International Journal of Middle East Studies except that I have not used any diacritical marks. Consistency does have its costs, one of which is that several of the people mentioned may barely recognize their own names.