Is Islamic Shariat Compatible with Contemporary Russian Law?

Abstract

The article is devoted to analysis of the forms of interaction between Shariat and legislation in action as well as compatibility of Shariat with contemporary Russian law in general. The author touches several reasons of increasing interest to the role which Shariat plays in legal development of Russia. Among these reasons he pays attention to the up-going process of renaissance of Islam, social and political activity of Muslim communities outside the regions where Islam is traditionally spread, the existing threat of Islamic extremism, increasing influence of Shariat upon political and legal development of the Muslim world. Also there are numerous conflicts linked with Muslim minorities in the West which contribute a lot to the interest paid to Shariat.

Several modes of referring to Shariat can be differentiated as far as its correlations with positive legislation are concerned. One of them manifests itself in the actions of Muslim separatists and extremists who directly oppose Shariat to the Russian law. Another mode provides for including of Shariat norms in the official legislation. There is one more form of the above mentioned correlation which is related with the action of Shariat as alternative regulator without opposing it to the official state law.

There is no one definite justification for the realization of Shariat provisions. For instance Muslim radicals refer only to religious arguments to fulfil their plans aiming at replacing official legislation by Shariat. Some Rissian scientists call for legalizing of Shariat norms but they do not put down any legal grounds or justification for their proposals. Russian jurists have different approaches to this issue. Some authors elaborate general conceptions which key point is legal recognition of local traditions and customs including Shariat norms. As a rule these theories concern Russian regions of Northern Caucasus.

The author examines several patterns of possible correlation between Shariat and state legislation. The first one is represented by the direct inclusion of Shariat norms into the legislation. The Russian law provides for such implementation under some conditions. The leading one is choosing among Shariat provisions those which meet criteria of legal norm and can be considered as Islamic law in proper sense. The other form of the correlation mentioned above manifests itself in legal acts which refer to the historical and local traditions. It means in indirect form the possibility of implementation of some Shariat norms. Besides that Shariat provisions can be used for solving issues which are provided for by dispositive norms of state legislation. Generally the author gives positive answer to the question put in the title of the article.