Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-7cvxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T02:01:03.542Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Islamic Law (Shari'a) and the Jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 May 2011

Abstract

Although the International Criminal Court (ICC) has been mostly hailed as a victory, Islamic states still regard its application of international criminal-law norms with scepticism. The Rome Statute instructs the Court to apply general principles of law derived from national laws of legal systems of the world including the national laws of states that would normally exercise jurisdiction over the crime but, so far, the Court has relied purely upon Western inspiration and may fail to acquire the legitimacy to establish a universal system. Among the legal systems that are unjustifiably neglected by the ICC is the Islamic legal tradition. This paper argues that the principles of Islamic law are, for the most part, consistent with internationally recognized norms and standards, particularly those enshrined in the Rome Statute, and are on an equal footing with the common and Continental legal systems that are currently employed by the Court in the search for general principles of law.

Type
HAGUE INTERNATIONAL TRIBUNALS: International Criminal Court and Tribunals
Copyright
Copyright © Foundation of the Leiden Journal of International Law 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 R. B. Schlesinger, ‘Research on the General Principles of Law Recognized by Civilized Nations’, (1957) 51 AJIL 734, at 741.

2 J. C. Ochoa, ‘The Settlement of Disputes Concerning States Arising from the Application of the Statute of the International Criminal Court: Balancing Sovereignty and the Need for an Effective and Independent ICC’, (2007) 7 International Criminal Law Review 3.

3 M. J. Kelly, ‘Islam and International Criminal Law: A Brief (In)Compatibility Study’, (2010) Pace International Law Review Online Companion, available at http://digitalcommons.pace.edu/pilronline/8.

4 Kamali, M. H., ‘Legal Maxims and Other Genres of Literature in Islamic Jurisprudence’, (2006) 20 Arab Law Quarterly 77CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Badr, G., ‘Islamic Law: Its Relationship to Other Legal Systems’, (1978) 26 American Journal of Comparative Law 187CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

5 Zahraa, M., ‘Characteristic Features of Islamic Law: Perceptions and Misconceptions’, (2000) 15 Arab Law Quarterly 168CrossRefGoogle Scholar; see also D. Westbrook, ‘Islamic International Law and Public International Law: Separate Expressions of World Order’, (1993) 33 Virg. JIL 819.

6 H. Enayat, Modern Islamic Political Thought (1982); A. Hourani, Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age: 1798–1939 (1983); W. B. Hallaq, A History of Islamic Legal Theories: An Introduction to Sunni Usul-al Fiqh (1997).

7 J. Schacht, An Introduction to Islamic Law (1964), 1.

8 M. H. Kamali, Shari'ah Law: An Introduction (2008), 1.

9 See R. David and J. Brierly, Major Legal Systems in the World Today (1978), 421.

10 Schacht, supra note 7, at 2.

11 Layish, A., ‘The Transformation of the Shari'a from Jurists' Law to Statutory Law’, (2004) 44 Die Welt des Islams 85, at 86CrossRefGoogle Scholar; see also F. A. Hassan, ‘The Sources of Islamic Law’, (1982) 76 ASIL Proc. 65, at 65.

12 Layish, ibid.

13 J. L. Esposito, ‘The Islamic Threat: Myth or Reality?’, in J. Rehman et al. (eds.), Religion, Human Rights and International Law: A Critical Examination of Islamic State Practices (2007), 5; see also J. Rehman, Islamic State Practices, International Law and the Threat from Terrorism: A Critique of the ‘Clash of Civilizations’ in the New World Order (2005).

14 J. Gathii, ‘The Contribution of Research and Scholarship on Developing Countries to International Legal Theory’, (2000) 41 Harv. ILJ 263; S. S. Ali and J. Rehman, ‘The Concept of Jihad in Islamic International Law’, (2005) 10 JCSL 321; Boisard, M. A., ‘On the Probable Influence of Islam on Western Public and International Law’, (1980) 11 International Journal of Middle East Studies 429CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

15 This number includes Palestine, which is not yet considered a state under international law. For more information on the OIC, see www.oic-oci.org/page_detail.asp?p_id=52.

16 In 2004, the OIC made submissions on behalf of Muslim states regarding proposed reforms of the UN Security Council to the effect that ‘any reform proposal, which neglects the adequate representation of the Islamic Ummah in any category of members in an expanded Security Council will not be acceptable to the Islamic coutries’; see UN Doc. A/59/425/S/2004/808 (11 October 2004), para. 56, quoted in M. A. Baderin (ed.), International Law and Islamic Law (2008), xv.

17 C. B. Lombardi, ‘Islamic Law as a Source of Constitutional Law in Egypt: The Constitutionalization of the Shari'a in a Modern Arab State’, (1998) 37 Col. JTL 81.

18 Bassiouni, M. C., The Shari'a and Post-Conflict Justice (2010), 15 (on file with the author)Google Scholar.

19 J. Esoisutim, ‘Contemporary Islam: Reformation or Revolution? ’, in J. Esposito (ed.), The Oxford History of Islam (1999), 643.

20 H. Hamoudi, ‘The Death of Islamic Law’, (2009) 38 Georgia JICL 316, at 325.

21 R. Peters, Crime and Punishment in Islamic Law (2007), 124.

22 M. Khadduri, ‘The Modern Law of Nations’, (1956) 50 AJIL 358.

23 M. A. Baderin, International Human Rights and Islamic Law (2005), 32–4. Some scholars use the terms ‘Islamic law’, Shari'a, and/or fiqh interchangably. For example, Kamali considers Shari'a to also include fiqh; see Kamali, supra note 8.

24 A. Rahim, The Principles of Islamic Jurisprudence (1994), 389.

25 F. Robinson, Atlas of the Islamic World since 1500 (1982), 320.

26 A. S. Alarefi, ‘Overview of Islamic Law’, (2009) 9 International Criminal Law Review 707, at 707–8; Schacht, supra note 7, at 1–5.

27 Zahraa, supra note 5, at 171.

28 Kamali, supra note 8, at 88.

30 Alarefi, supra note 26, at 709–10.

31 El-Awa, M. S., ‘Approaches to Shari'a: A Response to N. J. Coulson's A History of Islamic Law’, (1991) 2 Journal of Islamic Studies 143, at 146CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

32 6239 verses (Bassiouni, supra note 18); 6235 verses (Kamali, supra note 8); 6666 (I. Abdal-Haqq, ‘Islamic Law: An Overview of Its Origin and Elements’, (2002) 7 Islamic Law and Culture 27).

33 There are 80 legal verses according to Coulson (infra note 57), 120 according to Bassiouni (supra note 18), 350 according to Kamali (supra note 8), 500 according to Ghazali, and 800 according to Ibn Al-Arabi, while, according to Shawkani, any calclulation can only amount to a rough estimate.

34 El-Awa, supra note 31, at 146.

35 Kamali, supra note 8, at 22.

36 El-Awa, supra note 31, at 153.

37 Kamali, supra note 8, at 18.

38 El-Awa, supra note 31, at 147.

39 Abdal-Haqq, supra note 32, at 35.

40 S. Rammadan, Islamic Law: Its Scope and Equity (1970), 75.

41 M. H. Kamali, Principles of Islamic Jurisprudence (2006), 469.

42 Kamali, supra note 8, at 40–1.

43 Bassiouni, supra note 18, at 10.

44 J. E. Brockopp, ‘Competing Theories of Authority in Early Maliki Texts’, in B. G. Weiss (ed.), Studies in Islamic Legal Theories (2002), 3.

45 Abdal-Haqq, supra note 32, at 55.

46 Ibid., at 228–9.

47 ‘Refutations of the validity of qiyas are to be found in Imami Shi'i collections of reports, all available Shi'i works of ūsūl al-fiqh, polemics against Sunni thought and not infrequently in works of furu al-fiqh’: R. M. Gleave, ‘Imami Shi'i Refutations of Qiyas’, in Weiss, supra note 44, at 267.

48 Kamali, supra note 41, at 264. The ulama (Muslim jurists) are in unanimous agreement that the Qur'ān and the Sunnah constitute the sources of the original case, but there is some disagreement as to whether ijmā’ constitutes a valid source for qiyas; see Kamali, ibid., at 268.

49 Ibid., at 267.

51 S. Nagaty, The Theory of Crime and Criminal Responsibility in Islamic Law: Shari'a (1991), 50.

52 A. Mansour, ‘Hudud Crimes’, in M. C. Bassiouni (ed.), The Islamic Criminal Justice System (1982), 195.

53 Kamali, supra note 8, at 161.

54 M. C. Bassiouni, ‘Crimes and the Criminal Process’, (1997) 12 Arab Law Quarterly 269.

55 I. A. K. Nyazee, General Principles of Criminal Law: Islamic and Western (2000), 28.

56 El-Awa, supra note 31, at 157.

57 N. J. Coulson, A History of Islamic Law (1964), 124.

58 Nyazee, supra note 55, at 18.

59 Al-Muhairi, B., ‘The Islamisation of Laws in the UAE: The Case of the Penal Code’, (1996) 11 Arab Law Quarterly 363CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

60 Rules establishing the next of kin vary according to different schools; see Peters, supra note 21, at 45.

61 Ibid., at 48.

62 M. C. Bassiouni, ‘Quesas Crimes’, in Bassiouni, supra note 52, at 203.

63 Coulson, supra note 57, at 124.

64 G. Benmelha, ‘Ta'azir Crimes’, in Bassiouni, supra note 52, at 213.

65 Ibid., at 213.

66 UNDOC, Combating Trafficking in Persons in Accordance with the Principles of Islamic Law, 45, available at www.unodc.org/documents/human-trafficking/Islamic_Law_TIP_E_ebook_18_March_2010_V0985841.pdf.

67 Benmelha, supra note 64, at 213–14.

68 W. B. Hallaq, The Origins and Evolution of Islamic Law (2005), 153.

70 Ibid. Those jurists are Abu Hanifa, Ibn Abi Layla, Abu Yusuf, Shaybani, Malik, Awza'i, Thawri, and Shafi'i.

71 Ibid., at 157.

72 Ibid., at 156.

74 Bassiouni, supra note 18.

75 Rahim, supra note 24, at 73–110.

76 Peters, supra note 21, at 6.

77 Ibid. Nevertheless, Saudi qadis, as a rule, follow the Hanbali School.

78 R. Moschtaghi, Max Planck Manual on Afghan Constitutional Law, Vol. I, Structure and Principles of the State (2009), at 31.

79 S. Mahmoudi, ‘The Sharia in the New Afghan Constitution: Contradiction or Compliment?’, (2004), 868, available at www.mpil.de/shared/data/pdf/mahmoudi,_the_shari%27a_in_the_new_afghan_constitution_contradiction_or_compliment.pdf.

80 Ibid., at 871.

81 As noted by the English jurist Lord Phillimore in the Proceedings of the Advisory Committee of Jurists, 16 June–24 July 1920, in Proces-verbaux, 335, quoted in Jalet, F. F., ‘The Quest for the General Principles of Law Recognized by Civilized Nations: A Study’, (1963) 10 University of California, Los Angeles Law Review 1041, at 1046Google Scholar.

82 Early, J. and Walsh, C., Jowitt's Dictionary of English Law, Vol. 2 (1977), at 1164Google Scholar, quoted in L. Zakariyah, ‘Applications of Legal Maxims in Islamic Criminal Law with Special Reference to Sharī’ah Law in Northern Nigeria (1999–2007)’, D. Phil. thesis, University of Wales, 2009.

83 See E. Coke, The Third Part of the Institutes of the Laws of England (1817), 6; the Latin maxim appears in Coke's Third Institute, Chapter 1 (‘High Treason’).

84 James Stephen notes that the authority for this maxim is Coke's Third Institute, in which it is cited with a marginal note ‘Regula’ in the course of his account of the Statute of Treasons. Stephen admits that he does not know where Coke quotes it from; see J. F. Stephen, A History of the Criminal Law of England (1883), 94; Pollock and Maitland traced it correctly back to St Augustine, where the maxim reads ‘Reum non facit nisi mens rea’ and certainly contained no reference to an actus; F. Pollock and W. Maitland, The History of English Law before the Time of Edward I (1923), 476.

85 M. A. al-Zarqā, al-Madkhal al-Fiqhī al-’Amm, Vol. II (1983), 933.

86 Kamali, supra note 8, at 143.

87 Kamali, supra note 4, at 78.

88 Zakariyah, supra note 82, at 58–9.

89 A. Al-Qarafi, al-Furūq, Vol. 1, 3, quoted in Zakariyah, supra note 82, at 59.

90 Appeal No. 36, Penal Judicial Year 5, Session 9/1/1984; Appeal No. 40, Penal Judicial Year 6, Session 18/1/1985; Appeal No. 32, Penal Judicial Year 13, Session 15/1/1992; Appeal No. 42, Penal Judicial Year 8, Session 1986; Appeal No. 43, Penal/Shari'a Judicial Year 18, Session 4/5/1996.

91 Zakariyah, supra note 82, at 59–60.

93 Ibid., at 38.

94 Ijtihād (independent reasoning) literally means legal methods of interpretation and reasoning by which a mujtahid derives or rationalizes law on the basis of the Qur'ān, the Sunnah, and/or consensus.

95 Zakariyah, supra note 82, at 42.

97 Mohammed, K., ‘The Islamic Law Maxims’, (2005) 44 Islamic Studies 19, at 196Google Scholar; W. Heinriches, ‘Qawā’id as a Genre of Legal Literature’, in Weiss, supra note 44, at 369.

98 Kamali, supra note 41, at 142–4.

99 Zakariyah, supra note 82, at 46.

100 Heinriches, supra note 97, at 364 and 385; Mohammed, supra note 97, at 191–209; M. H. Kamali, ‘Shari'ah and the Challenge of Modernity’, (1994) 1 Journal of the Institute of Islamic Understanding Malaysia, reprinted in (1995) 2 Islamic University Quarterly.

101 Zakariyah, supra note 82, at 55.

102 M. A. Barikati, Qawā’id al-Fiqh (1961), 142, quoted in Kamali, supra note 8, at 145 (emphasis added).

103 S. M. Zarqā, Sharh al-Qawā’id al-Fiqhiyyah (1993), 382, in Kamali, supra note 8, at 145.

104 W. A. Schabas, The International Criminal Court: A Commentary on the Rome Statute (2010), 403, with reference to universal and regional human rights instruments together with relevant provision (Art. 99) in the third Geneva Convention of 1949 Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War and Arts. 2(c) and 6(c) the two Additional Protocols to the 1949 Geneva Conventions Relating to the Protection of Victims of International and Non-International Armed Conflict, respectively.

105 See B. Broomhall, ‘Article 22: Nullum crimen sine lege’, in O. Triffterer (ed.), Commentary on the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (2008), 714.

106 Art. 23 of the ICC Statute.

107 Kamali, supra note 8, at 180.

108 T. Kamel, ‘The Principle of Legality and Its Application in Islamic Criminal Justice’, in M. C. Bassiouni supra note 52, at 149–50.

109 Kamali, supra note 8, at 186.

110 Al- Ghazālī, a-Mustasfā, I, 63; Al-Āmidī, al-Ihkām, I, 130, in Kamali, supra note 8, at 186.

111 Kamali, supra note 8, at 188.

112 Muslim, Sahīh Muslim, Kitāb al-Imān, Bāb al-Islām yahdim mā qablah wa kadhā al-hijrah wa al-hajj; Abū Zahrah, al-Jarīmah, 343, in Kamali, supra note 8, at 188.

113 Kamel, supra note 108, at 159.

114 Ibid., at 161.

115 S. Tellenbach, ‘Fair Trial Guarantees in Criminal Proceedings under Islamic, Afghan Constitutional and International Law’, (2004), available at www.zaoerv.de/64_2004/64_2004_4_a_929_942.pdf.

116 Kamel, supra note 108, at 157.

117 Ibid., at 151; M. S. El-Awa, supra note 31; Benmelha, supra note 64, at 213.

118 See also Bassiouni, supra note 18, at 56.

119 Barberá, Messegué and Jabardo v. Spain, (1988) Series A No. 146, para. 77, quoted by W. A. Schabas, ‘Presumption of Innocence’, in Triffterer, supra note 105, at 1236 (numbers added).

120 Abū Yūsuf, Kitāb al-Kharāj, 152, in Kamali, supra note 8, at 181.

121 Baderin, supra note 23, at 103.

122 M. H. Kamali, Principles of Islamic Jurisprudence (2003), 384.

123 Kamali, supra note 8, at 145–6.

124 Al-Bayhaqī, al-Sunan al-Kubrā, Kitāb al-Da'wā wa al-Bayyināt, Bāb al-Bayyinah ‘alā al-Mudda'ā wa al-Yam n ’alā al-Mudda'ā ’alayh’, in Kamali, supra note 8, at 182.

125 Al Baihagi, ‘The 40 Hadith of Imam al Nawawi, No. 33’, in Bassiouni, supra note 18, at 40.

126 Al Turmuzy, No. 1424; Al Baihagi, No. 8/338; Al Hakim, No. 4384, in Bassiouni, supra note 18, at 40.

127 S. S. S. Haneef, Homicide in Islam (2000), 120.

128 Quoted in Rabb, I. A., ‘Islamic Legal Maxims as Substantive Canons of Construction: Hudūd – Avoidance in Cases of Doubt’, (2010) 17 Arab Law Quarterly 63, at 64–5Google Scholar.

129 Ibid., at 66.

130 Tellenbach, supra note 115, at 930.

131 See Badar, M. E., ‘The Mental Element in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court: A Commentary from a Comparative Criminal Law Perspective’, (2008) 19 Criminal Law Forum 473CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

132 Zakariyah, supra note 82, at 64.

133 Ibid., at 64.

134 Ibid., at 65.

135 Al-Bukhari, Sahih, hadīth no. 1, Muslim, Sahih, hadīth no. 1599.

136 Sahih al-Bukhari; Vol. 9, at 65, quoted in Y. Y. Bambale, Crimes and Punishment in Islamic Law (2003), 7.

137 Ibid.

138 A. O. Naseef, Encyclopedia of Seerah (1982), 741, in Bambale, supra note 136, at 6.

139 M. Abu-Zahra, Al-Jarima Wal-Uquba fil Islam (Crime and Punishment in Islam) (1998), 396.

140 Ibid., at 106.

141 Supreme Federal Court of the UAE, Appeal 52, judicial year 14, hearing 30 January 1993.

142 Powers, P. R., ‘Offending Heaven and Earth: Sin and Expiation in Islamic Homicide Law’, (2007) 14 Islamic Law and Society 42CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

143 Nyazee, supra note 55, at 98.

144 Haneef, supra note 127, at 1.

145 Nyazee, supra note 55, at 99; Haneef, supra note 127, at 35.

146 Nyazee, supra note 55, at 99.

147 Al-Tahawi, Sharih Ma'ani al-Athar, Vol. 3, 186, quoted in Haneef, supra note 127, at 36.

148 Haneef, supra note 127, at 36.

149 Powers, supra note 142, at 48; Peters, supra note 21, at 43.

150 Powers, supra note 142, at 42 and 48.

151 Ibid., at 49.

152 Art. 31(1)(d)(i) of the ICC Statute.

153 Art. 31(1)(d)(ii) of the ICC Statute.

154 See R. v. Conway, [1988] 3 All ER 1025, Court of Appeal, Criminal Division; R. v. Martin, [1989] 1 All ER 652, Court of Appeal, Criminal Division.

155 Art. 33 of the ICC Statute.

156 Nyazee, supra note 55, at 144.

157 Ibn Majah, al-Sunan, op. cit. hadīth no. 2045, in Zakariyah, supra note 82, at 73.

158 Peters, supra note 21, at 23.

159 A. Q. Oudah, Criminal Law of Islam, Vol. 2 (2005), 293.

160 Ibid., at 300–3.

161 Ibid., at 298.

162 Zakariyah, supra note 82, at 178–83.

163 Abu-Zahra, supra note 139, at 379.

164 Zakariyah, supra note 82, at 73; Oudah, supra note 159, at 306.

165 Peters, supra note 21, at 24; Zakariyah, supra note 82, at 151–2.

166 Abu-Zahra, supra note 139, at 382; Oudah, supra note 159, at 299.

167 Abu-Zahra, supra note 139, at 382.

168 A. A. Mawdūdī, Human Rights in Islam (1980), 33.

169 Sahīh Muslim, Kitāb al-Amānah, Bāb Wujūb Tā'at al-Umarā’ fi Ghayr al-Ma'siyah wa Tahrīmuhā fi'l-Ma'siyah, hadīth no. 39. This hadīth is reported in both Bukhāri and Muslim.

170 Abū Dāwūd al-Sijistānī, Sunan Abū Dāwūd, tr. Ahmad Hasan, hadīth no. 2285.

171 Oudah, supra note 159, at 295.

172 Hasia Ibn Abideen, Vol. 5, at 112, in ibid.

173 Mawdūdī, supra note 168, at 33.

174 Kamali, supra note 8, at 180.

175 Mawdūdī, supra note 168, at 32; cf. Abu Zahrah, Tanzīm, 34–5; Mutawallī, Mabādī, 387; Ghazāwī, al-Hurriyyah, 26, in Kamali, supra note 8, at 181.

176 Mawdūdī, supra note 168, at 32.

177 Ibid.

178 Baderin, supra note 23, at 32–3.

179 M. H. Kamali, Principles of Islamic Jurisprudence (1991), 169.

180 G. Picken, Islamic Law, 4 vols. (2010).

181 Prosecutor v. Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, Décision sur la confirmation des charges, Case No. ICC-01/04-01/06-803, 29 January 2007, paras. 356–359.

182 M. C. Bassiouni, Islamic Criminal Justice (1982); M. C. Bassiouni, ‘Protection of Diplomats under Islamic Law’, (1980) 74 AJIL 609; M. C. Bassiouni, ‘Evolving Approaches to Jihad: From Self-Defense to Revolutionary and Regime-Change Political Violence’, (2007) 8 Chicago JIL 119; M. C. Bassiouni and A. Guellali (eds.), Jihad and Its Challenges to International and Domestic Law (2010); Zeidy, M. E. El and Murphy, R., ‘Islamic Law on Prisoners of War and Its Relationship with International Humanitarian Law’, (2004) 14 Italian Yearbook of International Law 53Google Scholar; Malekian, F., ‘The Homogenity of ICC with Islamic Jurisprudence’, (2009) 9 International Criminal Law Review 595CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Maged, A., ‘Arab and Islamic Shari'a Perspectives on the Current System of International Criminal Court’, (2008) 8 International Criminal Law Review 477CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Roach, S. C., ‘Arab States and the Role of Islam in the International Criminal Court’, (2005) 53 Political Studies 143CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

183 Schlesinger, supra note 1, at 741; Ambos has noted that a purely Western approach must be complemented by non-Western concepts of crime and punishment, such as Islamic law, to establish and develop a universal system; see K. Ambos, ‘International Criminal Law at the Crossroads: From Ad Hoc Imposition to a Treaty-Based Universal System’, in C. Stahn and L. Van den Herik (eds.), Future Perspective on International Criminal Justice (2010), 161, at 177.