A Reality, an Idea, a Colonial Legacy by Dr Valentino Cattelan

This seminar is hosted by the School of Law, Social & Criminal Justice Research Seminar Series. Our series offers exciting insights into ongoing research projects within the law school and conducted by our external research partners. We often feature work from our research centres. Join us for invigorating discussion! 

In this session, we hear from Dr Valentino Cattelan. Valentino Cattelan holds a PhD in Law & Economics (University of Siena, Italy). He is currently module leader for Contract Law at BCU. His research interests include comparative law, EU law, contract law and financial law – with specific reference to the Islamic legal tradition. On the matter he has recently published the monograph ‘ Religion and Contract Law in Islam: From Medieval Trade to Global Finance’ (Routledge, 2024). He is passionate about the nature of market relations, property rights and the theory of legal comparison. He has broad teaching experience at an international level, with academic positions held in Italy, France, Germany, Spain, the UK and Turkey. He is also a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. 

 In this session, Valentino will give the following presentation, followed by an interactive Q&A: 

Islamic Law: A Reality, an Idea, a Colonial Legacy 

This seminar explores the meaning of Islamic law as a social/cultural construct that bears the patina of Western culture in representing the legal reality(-ies) of Muslim civilizations. By looking at this concept at the intersection of convergent paths (the revelation of the Qur’an; the construction of fiqh, the ‘understanding’ of Shariah as specific legal tradition; the transformation of legal praxis in the context of Muslim societies), ‘Islamic law’ will be investigated as a mutable idea, whose transcendental reality (God’s Message according to Muslim legal theology) necessarily relates to overlapping layers of meaning in its empirical application – and, ultimately, to the impact of Western coloniality in shaping the present normativity of Muslim countries. From this elaboration, a more critical approach towards the notion of ‘Islamic law’ will be advanced also in the light of framework of decoloniality. 

If you have any questions, contact Mitchell Longan, the Research Seminar Series leader, at mitchell.longan@bcu.ac.uk.