Islamic Law in Contemporary Indonesia: Ideas and Institutions: 5 (Harvard Series in Islamic Law) - Hardcover

This work is a much-needed addition to the literature on Islam in Indonesia and has established itself as a required reference for scholars interested in the state of Islamic legal thought and practice in contemporary Indonesia.--Robert W. Hefner"Journal of Law and Religion" (11/26/2008) The book is a collection of well-written chapters analyzing Islamic law and society in the world's most populous Muslim state. In addition to contributing to Islamic legal studies, the volume includes highly accessible chapters that could be incorporated into undergraduate or graduate syllabi...A number of chapters deserve wide circulation. Overall, the volume is a welcome contribution to scholarship on Islamic law and society as well as political science. Scholars of Islamic law will appreciate the volume's solid empirical grounding. From these foundations, future scholars will be able to branch out beyond the study of the religious courts and Acehnese Shari'a...Political scientists should appreciate the accessibility of the chapters, which can be easily integrated into courses on law and politics.-- (11/01/2008) This book manages to provide an overall view of Islamic law in contemporary Indonesia and lives up to the promise of its title. For those who are interested to know more about the position of Islamic law in Indonesia, particularly its current development, this book is a must. The editors and writers should be congratulated for their hard work put into depicting the contemporary status of Islamic law in Indonesia. Researchers working on other Southeast Asia countries in particular would find it helpful to consider the position of the Indonesian legal system in view of the fact that their histories and destinies are intertwined.-- (06/01/2008)

Although often neglected in the literature on Islamic law, contemporary Indonesia is an especially rich source of insight into the diverse understandings and uses of the Islamic legal tradition in the modern world. Indonesian Muslims are engaged in vibrant and far-reaching debates over the terms, relevance, and developmental limits of Islamic law, and Indonesia is home to a variety of dynamic state and non-state institutional structures for the generation and application of Islamic doctrine. The essays in this volume provide focused examinations of the internal dynamics of intellectual and institutional elements of Islamic law in modern Indonesia in its recent formations. The first five chapters address issues relating to Islamic legal theory, both its historical development over the past Century and analysis of the work of specific groups of contemporary scholars, jurists, and activists. The final seven chapters contain studies of more concrete manifestations of Islamic law in modern Indonesia, including court systems, positive law, the drafting of new "Islamic" legislation, and contemporary debates over the implementation of the Shari'a. Taken together these essays offer a series of substantive introductions to important developments in both the theory and practice of law in the world's most populous Muslim society.