| This thesis examines the legal system of Saudi Arabia not only for its own sake but also as a case-study for advancing our understanding of past and present Islamic legal systems. Indeed, the overriding objective of the research is to gain a more fundamental understanding of Islamic law and legal systems in comparison with secular Western counterparts.;Saudi Arabia, never colonized, is an apt subject. It, almost alone among Muslim countries, has a constitutional and legal system resting on traditional Islamic legal principles. The Qur'an and Sunna are the declared constitution; the Islamic fiqh is the common law; no comprehensive "man-made" codes exist; religious-legal scholars (';After a methodological Introduction, Chapter One introduces basic conceptions of Islamic law, while developing a framework of comparison used throughout the book.;Chapter Two begins the examination of the Saudi legal system by considering the processes of ;Chapter Three moves from the plane of the qadi and the court to that of the ruler and the state. It begins with a survey of Islamic legal and constitutional history, raising hypotheses suggested by the thesis's emerging comparative framework. It then takes up two case-studies. The first is a series of recent developments in Saudi criminal law toward harsher penalties for certain crimes, involving a changed interpretation of the d hadd, or Qur'anic, crime of d hiraba and a shift of jurisdiction from the King to the courts. The second is the vigorous, long-standing controversy whether Saudi Arabia should codify its laws (taqnin). The second case-study serves as a summary and conclusion, since it brings together and applies the findings of earlier Chapters. |
