By Julie Fraser, Assistant Professor of Law, Utrecht University

The large-scale Black Lives Matter protests in the middle of 2020 made it impossible to look away from structural biases and inequalities around the world. As an international lawyer, I reflected further on how the norms and institutions of international law also privilege and silence certain perspectives and practices. This dove-tailed with the ongoing movement to decolonise international law and the university more broadly. In an effort to both expose and address this issue in relation to one branch of international law, I wrote the paper: “A Seat at the Table: Islamic Law’s Neglected Potential in Universalising International Humanitarian Law.”

This paper borrows from Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL) scholarship to demonstrate the gaps in international humanitarian law’s claim to universality and its skew towards Eurocentrism. While TWAIL scholars have analysed numerous branches of international law, international humanitarian law remained under-studied. I am particularly attracted to TWAIL scholarship given its inherent creativity and underlying commitment to realising the emancipatory potential of international law for all people. As an international lawyer, but primarily a human rights lawyer, I am driven by the goals of dignity and equality for all.

My paper argues that Islamic laws of war are historically and normatively highly relevant for international humanitarian law – as scholarship has shown – but that they have been largely neglected to date. Such oversight can be observed in older bodies like the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) as well as newer institutions like the International Criminal Court that prosecutes war crimes. I argue that making epistemic space for Islamic law within the body of international humanitarian law can contribute to making international law more genuinely universal. While the ICRC has begun to engage with Islamic law and jurists, notably Dr Al-Dawoody who is the Legal Adviser for Islamic Law and Jurisprudence at the ICRC, there is still room to improve.

Another practical reason for urging attention to the Islamic laws of war is the fact that contemporary conflicts occur disproportionately in Islamic contexts. Sadly familiar examples here include Syria, Yemen, Sudan, Iraq, and Afghanistan. I argue that in addition to remedying some of international law’s ‘international’ deficit, drawing from Islamic law may be important to addressing armed conflicts in these contexts.

The paper is now available on SSRN.