The Islamic Law of War: Justifications and Regulations.

• Author: Quigley, John B.
• Position: Book review

The Islamic Law of War: Justifications and Regulations. By AHMED AL-DAWOODY. Palgrave Series in Islamic Theology, Law, and History, vol. 2. New York: PALGRAVE MACMILLAN, 2011. Pp. xiii + 338. $90.

As a result of events of the past decade considerable interest has been generated in the Islamic law relating to warfare, and in questions such as whether those who engage in acts of violence and who, additionally, espouse Islam can find justification in Islamic sources; and whether in those same sources Western governments can find ways to counter such violence. For those on either side of this divide the interest in a book on the Islamic law of war may be simply to ascertain what Islamic law on war is all about.

One central question is what significance the Islamic law of war may have in the real world. The law of war, after all, is universal. One finds precepts in multilateral treaties as well as in a customary body of norms that are said to be shared by all states of the world. If there is a body of law on war in Islamic sources, does it have any relevance? If particular ones of its norms vary from what one finds in the universally applicable law of war, do the former affect the application of the universal norms?

Still another way to approach the subject is historical. The modern law of war, the law applicable universally, is of rather recent origin, while the Islamic law of war goes well back in history. The universal law of war crystallized only in the late nineteenth century, if one speaks of what we call jus in hello, that is, the body of law regulating the conduct of hostilities: the prohibition on targeting civilians, or the requirement that a state occupying foreign territory in war must treat the population humanely. Jus in bell stands for law "within" was. Its norms apply to all combatants, regardless of the rights and wrongs of the conflict in which they are engaged. A state defending itself against an attack is bound not to mistreat civilians to the same extent as is an aggressor state.

The other branch of the law of war is jus ad bellum--the right to initiate warfare, limited, essentially, to force required in defense--and is of even more recent origin. This body of law dates only from the early twentieth century at the universal level, when states began to develop the concept that it should be unlawful to wage war. This concept was reflected in a partial fashion in the Covenant of the League of Nations, drafted to prevent the...