Workshop report: Codifcation of family law

'The workshop ‘Processes of Codification in the Middle East and Beyond’ took place at the University of Bergen, on 26 November 2021 as part of the CanCode-project. The workshop took place via zoom and was organized by Monika Lindbekk (Research Fellow, University of Bergen) and Nijmi Edres (Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, Leibniz-Institut für Bildungsmedien, Georg-Eckert-Institut).

The focus of this workshop was on processes of codification in Middle Eastern states. In the workshop, we adopted a joint perspective by bringing together scholars who work on government-sponsored codes, as well as the jurists’ and judges’ bottom-up role in formulating and arguing for specific rules, thus complementing top-down politically initiated stability/changes. With the aim of generating systematic, comparative empirical research, we invited scholars who have extensive knowledge on the subject matter to present papers on the case studies of Egypt, Iraqi Kurdistan, India, Israel, Jordan. Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia and participate in joint discussions. Whereas each case study is context-specific, we were also interested in how shifting interpretations of Islamic law are entangled in economic, political, social, and cultural transformations that sometimes transcend the individual case studies.

Eirik Hovden (Research Fellow, University of Bergen) and Monika Lindbekk opened with introductory words on the CanCode-project. The workshop was divided into two panels. After the introduction, Monika Lindbekk started the first panel by addressing continuity and change during 100 years of personal status reform in Egypt, the first country after the Ottoman Empire to codify its personal status law. She also outlined the dynamics of personal status reform since the 2011 uprising. Afterwards, Dominik Krell (Research Associate, Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law) gave a presentation on reform in the absence of a codified family Law with examples from Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia is the last country in the Middle East without a comprehensive codification of the law. This was followed by a paper by Mahmood Kooria (Assistant Professor, Ashoka University) where he explored the codification of customs and norms among matrilineal Muslims of the Indian Ocean world.

 Shéhérazade Elyazidi (Research Associate, Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law) opened the second panel with a presentation on the efforts of Iraqi Kurdish nation-builders to reform the Iraqi family law for the Kurdish region of Iraq. This new family law and its application are intended to fit into the Kurdish society and in this way promote a new Kurdish identity in the Kurdish Region of Iraq. In her presentation, she analyzed the reinterpretation of this hybrid Kurdish-Iraqi identity between the norm of gender equality and the Islamic legal tradition. Subsequently, Nijmi Edres (Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, Leibniz-Institut für Bildungsmedien, Georg-Eckert-Institut) addressed the codification of Muslim law in Israel within the framework of the CanCode Project. Her presentation looked at the changing agency and role of Palestinian Muslim judges against the backdrop of the challenges posed by failed attempts of codification of a modern code of Muslim family law in the Israeli context. The previous discussions were expanded upon by Rania Maktabi (Associate Professor, Østfold University College) who offered a comparative perspective on the gradual expansion of women’s legal capacity in North Africa –Tunisia, Egypt, Morocco and Algeria– through the lens of one aspect: a married woman’s legal capacity to initiate and get a divorce without the husband’s consent. In the final presentation of the workshop, Dörthe Engelcke (Senior Research Fellow, Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law) examined the struggle towards the 2018 draft inheritance law for Christian communities in Jordan.'

Organizers: Monika Lindbekk (Research Fellow, University of Bergen) and Nijmi Edres (Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, Leibniz-Institut für Bildungsmedien, Georg-Eckert-Institut). Location: Seminar room N, Sydneshaugen skole

• Eirik Hovden (Research Fellow, University of Bergen) and Monika Lindbekk with some introductory words on the CanCode-project 
• Monika Lindbekk (Research Fellow, University of Bergen): "100 Years of Personal Status Law Reform in Egypt: Quo Vadis?"
• Dominik Krell (Research Associate, Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law): "Reform in the Absence of a Codified Family Law: Examples from Saudi Arabia.”
• Mahmood Kooria (Assistant Professor, Ashoka Universiy): "Codifying Custom and Decodifying Family: Matrilineal Muslim Households in the Colonial Courts".
• Shéhérazade Elyazidi (Research Associate, Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law). "Nushuz in the Kurdish Iraqi Personal Status Law". 
• Nijmi Edres (Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, Leibniz-Institut für Bildungsmedien, Georg-Eckert-Institut). "Codification of Muslim law in Israel in the framework of the Can Code Project: challenges and ideas for future research"?
• Rania Maktabi (Associate Professor, Østfold University College): "Female Citizenship and Divorce Law Reform in the Arab States: The Gradual Expansion of Woman’s Legal Capacity in North Africa".
• Dörthe Engelcke (Senior Research Fellow, Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law): "Inheritance creates a grudge”: the struggle towards the 2018 draft inheritance law for Christian communities in Jordan".
• Discussion about publishing the papers as a special issue of an academic journal.