Islamic Law and Legal System: Studies of Saudi Arabia.

• Author: Shaham, Ron
• Position: Book Review

Islamic Law and Legal System: Studies of Saudi Arabia. By FRANK E. VOGEL. Studies in Islamic Law and Society, vol. 8. Leiden: BRILL, 2000. Pp. xx + 404.

The agenda of this book is indicated by its main title. The book is not merely a monograph on the operation of the formal Saudi legal system; it is meant to be a textbook on Islamic law, covering its history from its inception and focusing on the ulema and their relationship with the state. The Saudi legal system, studied on its own merit, serves as a case-study upon which the author (head of the Islamic Legal Studies Program at Harvard Law School) draws his general observations about the historical functioning of Islamic legal systems.

Saudi Arabia is currently the most traditionalist Islamic legal system in the world. Islamic law is formally the law of the land, applied by traditionally trained judges. From the 1970s onwards, extensive exchange with the West has contributed to the creation of legal institutions that appear modern and Western. But these new legal institutions remain in form mere superadditions to a preexisting legal system, and the latter has never fully acknowledged them (p. xiv). Considering the traditional character of the Saudi legal system, Vogel rightly assumes that it is the best example from which to derive hypotheses regarding the operation of premodern Islamic legal systems (pp. xvi-xvii).

The first part of the book (chapters 1-4) focuses on the "inner" world of the ulema and their legalistic discourse. It discusses Islamic legal theory (the key concept here is ijtihad) and the ways in which appeal and regular courts practice ijtihad Vogel uses practical legal topics, such as divorce, criminal liability in car accidents, and bank interest, as illustrations to his theoretical analysis. The second part of the book (cbs. 5-8) "opens" the world of Saudi ulema to their interaction with the Outer world, state, and society. It focuses on the operation of the Saudi legal system by analyzing criminal law, commercial law, and the debate on codification.

For Vogel the main (or almost only) players in the Saudi legal system are the ulema and the state (or King). The voice of other social forces, no doubt very important players in any legal system, is almost absent from his analysis. Here and there Vogel mentions merchants, technocrats, businessmen, and banks, but their role in the shaping of the Saudi legal system is hardly discussed. In Vogel's depiction of the triangle of legal players (ulema, state, and society), the power of the ulema is immense. He does not adequately explain how the ulema, although disappointing the needs of the King, the government, and the Saudi business community, still possess the...