We the Jurists: Islamic Constitutionalism in Iraq and Prospects for Progressive Family Law.

The Iraqi constitution's designation of Islamic law as "a source of law" pushed the question of Islamic law's role in state law to the forefront of the debate on democracy and women's rights. Does "rule of law" in Islamic democracies forward Islamic law's ends or democratic ones? Are the two necessarily at odds? Indeed, classical Islamic family law entails tensions between notions of liberal democratic and human rights norms on the one hand, and Islamic values on the other. But one can imagine prospects for how hybrid legal responses can respond to calls for both tradition and progress. This paper will cover two themes. First, it will focus on the institutional role that the Iraqi constitution contemplates for the jurists by comparing its Islamic law provisions with those of other "Islamic constitutions" in the region. Second, it will look at how other countries have approached family law reform within an Islamic framework, and consider the role that jurists play alongside political and judicial processes. It will take the recent Moroccan family law (Mudawannat al-usra) as one model because of its unique joinder between classical Islamic law and modern human rights norms. The reforms resulted from a collaborative effort between the government and the jurists in a self-conscious attempt to harmonize human rights norms with classical Maliki law. In reviewing that process and analyzing the Islamic legal bases for the reforms, this paper will consider the implications for the rule of law and law's legitimacy in "Islamic constitutional" countries like Iraq. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]