Emilia Justyna Powell, Islamic Law and International Law Peaceful Resolution of Disputes

Abstract

!e question whether the Western approach to international law dominates in the "eld of public intentional law is a very current issue. One of the attempts of tackling this problem can be found in the recent Anthea Roberts’ book entitled Is International Law International?,13in which the author concludes that international law is not international to the extent we believe it to be. Even though Roberts’ work is comprehensive, the only non-Western countries covered are China and Russia. None of MENA states are taken into account. !erefore, the reviewed monograph by Emilia Justyna Powell has been much anticipated and needed work that "lls an important gap in the international law scholarship. Reading Islamic Law and International Law is to immerse oneself in a private quest of the author who very much often uses the pronoun “I” when writing about what will be put forward before a reader. !is might be a little disconcerting as one is not used to such personal endeavors in the legal scholarship. It might also be regarded as a deviation from objectivity, which is inherent to the legal scholarship. It redirects the attention of a reader towards the author instead of the work that she had undertaken. Fortunately, once a reader gets accustomed to such form of a narrative, the focus is redirected to the research presented. Furthermore, the title of the book suggests much narrower scope, which might discourage some of the readers interested in a broader interaction of Islamic law and international law from picking up the position. While the monograph is devoted to dispute resolution, it also covers more general issues. In addition, Powell also includes a comparative study of non-Islamic states and their behavior when engaged in international disputes. !e book itself has a clear and concise structure. It is divided into eight chapters, including introduction and conclusions. !e introduction starts with setting the scene by way of assessing the importance of understanding Islamic law in the context of