Law and Society in the Arab World
Under auspices of Dr. Ali Khashan, Palestinian Minister of Justice, and Mr. Ayman Oden, Jordanian Minister of Justice, the Institute of Law (IoL) at Birzeit University held its annual international conference on Law and Society in the Arab World: Prospects and Transformation. Organised in Amman, Jordan, on 11 – 12 July 2008 in partnership with the Free University of Brussels, International Development and Research Centre (IDRC) and Konrad Adenauer Foundation, the event brought together international experts and specialists from Asia, Africa, Europe and North America.
The International Conference on Law and Society in the Arab World: Prospects and Transformation aimed to enable intensive interaction on a progressive topic of interest to the diverse and complex legal systems in the Arab World, as well as to promote an interdisciplinary approach to the study of law.
To instigate and develop a new approach to law in the Arab World, the Conference would help build bridges between disciplines and encourage lawyers and legal researchers to go beyond the legalistic approach to law, which focuses on technicalities and texts, and to begin to ask questions about its relations to society, to culture, to the state, or to the regional and global context. In this context, a variety of topics were examined, including legal reform in the Arab World, role of the judiciary, rule of law concept, criminal justice, globalisation, law and development, de-colonisation, state-building, etc.
As part of its relentless efforts to develop the status of law in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, IoL inaugurated the Law and Society Department in November 2006 to be responsible for conducting socio-legal researcher. IoL firmly believes that building a modern legal system relies on qualified legal researchers who not only need be qualified, but also be capable of detecting legal developments, as well as scrutinise their respective reflection and impact on the society.
