The Qur'an and the Common Law: Islamic Law Reform and the Theory of Legal Change

Editor’s Note: In Part One of this article, published in the last issue, Professor Horowitz noted the rapid legal change taking place in many parts of the world. Widespread Islamic law reform forms a prominent part of the process of change. Professor Horowitz pointed out that there is an inadequate supply of good theory to explain the sources and the directions of legal change, particularly theory that is genuinely comparative, and he then provided a critical survey of the main theoretical approaches that might be brought to bear on the problem of change. Thereafter, Professor Horowitz laid out the contours of the extensive statutory changes that have taken place in Malaysian Islamic law, explaining that the Malaysian drafters had borrowed freely, both from other Islamic systems and from Britishderived secular law, which has strong roots in Malaysia.