Pro-Bono Virtual Legal Clinics for Enhancement of Social Impact by Communities Affected by COVID-19

The right to legal advice is an essential entitlement and an imperative step toward effective enjoyment of other fundamental rights, especially to the communities which have limited access to legal opinions due to scarce financial means. Global communities are adversely affected, particularly in relation to employment, domestic violence, and financial hardships during this pandemic. This pro-bono virtual legal clinics project is instrumental in enhancing social impact by ensuring that communities continuously have better access to quality legal advice and information during the COVID-19 Movement Control Order through multiple social networking tools and meaningful collaborations with NGOs.

GENDER AND SEXUAL RIGHTS IN EARLY ISLAM

When early Islamic jurists outlined the marriage law, they codified a gendered model of conjugal rights and duties that privileged men over women. A similar development also took place regarding sexual rights as women’s pleasure and sexual gratification became secondary to those of men. Specialists in this period of Islamic history have argued that the gender ideologies prevalent in the early Abbasid society, which enabled an androcentric definition of Islam, should be seen as the primary cause for the inequality within the Islamic marriage system. This paper aims to show that Abbasid gender ideologies, contrary to popular descriptions, were not homogenous. Two major trends in understanding female sexuality during the early Abbasid period will be discussed. The first, androcentric trend that focused primarily on male sexual gratification was in conflict with a more women-friendly attitude; the latter was advocated in a number of literary genres, including medical handbooks, popular stories, educational and ethics literature. These works accentuated the importance of female sexual health and favoured female pleasure as a necessary element for mutual sexual satisfaction and marital happiness. The paper illustrates that some aspects from this more women-friendly approach to sexuality were adopted in later legal opinions that sought to correct the most visible cases of inequality in the social institution of marriage.

Ibn Taymiyyah and his fatwas on forbidden (haram) and permissible (halal) issues

Recently, the study of the legacy of a medieval religious scholar Ibn Taymiyyah, who lived in Syria at the turn of 14th century, has become particularly relevant due to the growing activity of various radical groups. Notably, some parts of his teachings became the foundation of the ideology of various modern extremist sects such as Wahhabism. However, his answers to religious questions regarding the forbidden (haram) and the permitted (halal) remain understudied. Ibn Taymiyyah's ideas contradicts the unanimous conclusion of Islamic theologians on more than 60 issues. His opinion on certain issues provoked lively discussions to the point of even forbidding him to make conclusions on certain religious issues. In addition, his belonging to the Hanbali madhhab in Islam is questionable. Another problem of the study is its contradiction to the traditional Islamic concept of God. The main purpose of the study is to investigate the ideas of Ibn Taymiyyah on some issues of Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh), to compare his views with the opinions of Islamic theologians and to define erroneous ideas about jurisprudence. In this study, the main approach was to study the works of Ibn Taymiyyah and compare them with the works of Islamic theologians, representatives of different madhhabs. It was found that a certain number of religious and legal opinions of this religious scholar in matters of halal and haram contradict the legal norms of the vast majority of Muslims. This study proves that the teachings of Ibn Taymiyyah contradict the Islamic concept of God and religious and legal practice

Wife’s right to her husband’s property that is disputed by them both

This research study addresses the perspective of Islamic jurisprudence on the right established for a wife in her husband’s property that is disputed by them both, especially after termination of their marital relationship. The research problem lies in that many women, upon their separation from their husbands, believe that their husbands’ financial welfare was only a result of their own assistance in undertaking marital responsibilities. This research study attempts to answer the question raised in such cases: What are the rights established for women against their husband in case they claim so?. The study seeks to highlight the objectives of the Shar?‘?h behind marriage and legalization of divorce, and to illustrate the established as a woman’s right in her husband’s property which she should have shared with him or substituted him in managing, through different considerations. The significance of the study lies in the emergent need for investigating it due to contemporary occurrences. This study builds on a descriptive and deductive comparative approach, along with a referential and applied method based on the juristic maxims and Shar?‘?h objectives, drawing only on preponderant legal opinions; outweighed views and their proofs are not mentioned in this study.

Ahmed Bâba at-Timbuktî

Ahmed Bâba (1556–1627) was among the most prolific and the most celebrated of Timbuktu scholars of the 16th and 17th centuries. During his childhood he was educated and trained in Arabic law and Islamic sciences by his father, Ahmad, and other relatives. His principal teacher, the man he named the regenerator (al-mujaddid), was the Juula scholar Mohammed Baghayogho al-Wangarî, whose teaching he followed for more than ten years. Following the Moroccan occupation of Timbuktu in 1591, he was exiled to Marrakesh in 1594 and jailed for two years before he was released but obliged to remain in the city for many years. He was widely known both for his teaching and for the fatwas (legal opinions) he issued. He was offered administrative positions but declined them all in favor of teaching. In 1608, he was permitted to return to his hometown, Timbuktu, where he continued to write and teach until his death in 1627, but he held no public office there. His special field of competence was jurisprudence. He was also recognized for his abilities in hadith and wrote several works on Arabic grammar. He is probably best known for his biographical compendium of Mâlikî (founded by Malik ibn Anas died A.D. 795 is orthodox school of Muslim jurisprudence predominating in Sudanic Africa and the Maghreb) scholars, Nayl al-Ibtihâj bi tadrîs ad-dibâdj, a valuable supplement for the Western Islamic world to Ibn Farhûn’s ad-Dibâj al-Mudhahhab. His work specifically addresses issues relating to the significance of racial and ethnic categories as factors in the justification of enslavement. In the Bilâd as-Sûdân, Ahmed Bâba influenced the debate over slavery by relying on interpretations of Islamic precedent, which was invoked to protect freeborn individuals from enslavement. By extension, he impacted the transatlantic slave trade on the basis of religious identification with Islam and the desire to avoid the sale of slaves to non-Muslims, especially Christian Europeans on the coast of West Africa.

The Law of Armed Conflict

Newly revised and updated, The Law of Armed Conflict, introduces students to the law of war in an age of terrorism. What law of armed conflict (LOAC) or its civilian counterpart, international humanitarian law (IHL), applies in a particular armed conflict? Are terrorists bound by that law? What constitutes a war crime? What (or who) is a lawful target and how are targeting decisions made? What are 'rules of engagement' and who formulates them? How can an autonomous weapon system be bound by the law of armed conflict? Why were the Guantánamo military commissions a failure? Featuring new chapters, this book takes students through these topics and more, employing real-world examples and legal opinions from the US and abroad. From Nuremberg to 9/11, from courts-martial to the US Supreme Court, from the nineteenth century to the twenty-first, the law of war is explained, interpreted, and applied with clarity and depth.

Case of “Levchuk vs Ukraine” and its importance for the protection of women from domestic violence in Ukraine

The paper is devoted to the characterization and analysis of the content of the key positions of the European Court of Human Rights embodied in the judgment in Levchuk v. Ukraine and related to the protection of the right to a fair trial, the right to an effective remedy and the right to respect for private and family life in the context of the protection and restoration of the applicant`s violated rights in connection with the commission of domestic violence against her. Therefore the purpose of the paper is to establish the content of the ECtHR’s legal opinions and positions embodied in the judgment in Levchuk v. Ukraine in the light of combating domestic violence, protecting victims and the prospects of the Court’s impact on domestic violence prevention and protection in Ukraine. Author states that the ECtHR's findings as to the need for the national court to take into account the risks of future physical and psychological violence by the applicant's ex-husband and cohabitant in deciding on his eviction as a realization of a right to an effective remedy not only per se, but also in an expedited trial. These components suggest that the Court in this case established a positive obligation on the part of the State of Ukraine through its judicial and law enforcement system to ensure the effective protection of the applicant from domestic violence. It is argued that despite the application by the ECtHR in this case only individual measures in the form of payment of compensation to the applicant, the precedent nature of the judgment in Levchuk v. Ukraine and the Court’s legal findings in the context of combating domestic violence in our country can lead to gradual and thorough regulative and administrative changes, approaching the moment of ratification of the Istanbul Convention by Ukraine.

Rebelling against the Ruler: Egyptian Youth and Azhari Scholars’ Authority after the 2011 Uprising

Scholars have investigated statements by Azhari ʿulamāʾ (religious scholars) about the legality of protest in Egypt in 2011 and 2013 and their use of fiqh al-wāqiʿ, a jurisprudential method by which jurists consider social and political realities when issuing legal opinions. These studies focus on Islamic legal theory but do not examine the social implications of the legal. Based on textual analysis of televised statements by ʿulamāʾ and interviews with young Muslim Egyptians, I argue that, although some jurists discouraged the laity from joining the 2011 protests, religious youth were not deterred from protesting. Additionally, laypeople who are not well-versed in Islamic law grew suspicious of the shifting opinions of ʿulamāʾ on the legal status of protest, as happened in 2013. In the aftermath of the 2011 and 2013 movements, the moral capital of several Azhari scholars decreased as did the moral-legal purchase of the fatwās they issued.

Brazil and the Implementation of Article 82 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea: Setting the Stage for the Bidding Rounds

This article analyses the challenges that Brazil faces in implementing Article 82 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (LOSC), which imposes a levy with respect to the exploitation of non-living resources on the continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles. First, it presents the developments made by Brazil with reference to Articles 76 and 82 of the LOSC, which are closely associated. Then, legal opinions and the conclusions of the Working Group (created to discuss the implementation of Article 82 in Brazil) are examined. Lastly, the tender protocol and the draft concession agreement for the ongoing bidding round – which includes blocks on the outer continental shelf – are considered. The article argues that the conclusions of the Working Group and core provisions of the relevant documents may compromise the proper implementation of Article 82 and impact the future relationship between Brazil and the International Seabed Authority.