Islamic Legitimacy Still Matters: The Rule of Law and Governance in Contemporary Arab Muslim-Majority States

Abstract

David Mednicoff scrutinizes how the rule of law functions and connects to governance in Arab Muslim-majority states. He characterizes law’s relation to governance in MMS as a fraught and fragile balancing act. The chapter shows that while the rule of law clearly applies centrally to governance and policy implementation throughout the Arab world, deep social divisions around political legitimacy, enhanced by colonial and post-colonial authoritarianism, limit key features important to legal accountability and transparency, such as judicial review and, frequently, the legislative process itself. Because of the ongoing significance, and unresolved status, of how specific Islamic historical sociolegal practice, and more general values, should play into the rule of law in contemporary Arab states, the relationship between governance and law faces continuing challenges. Islamic governance starts from a theistic, particularistic communal identity, and this raises possible tensions for its commensurability with today’s largely plural, non-theological dominant global sociolegal norms. Yet this does not mean an inevitable or inexorable lack of congruence between MMS and other legal systems, or liberal Western political and legal norms generally. Diverse Muslim perspectives remain key contributions to hopes for the rule of law in different Arab states.