This original research paper investigates how the division of the seas between international (the high seas) and territorial waters is approached in Islamic law as compared to international law. It describes the conceptualization of the seas against the background of contemporary international and Islamic law and analyses the Islamic legal concept of the appurtenance of the sea, ḥarīm al-baḥr, as a suitable vehicle to accommodate the modern division. The paper draws on source material from different Islamic schools, with a focus on the Ibāḍī school, which historically has paid relatively more attention to the seas. It suggests legal mechanisms that may be activated with regard to notions of territorial and international waters in Islamic law. The study arrives at the conclusion that some modern representations of ḥarīm al-baḥr are not commensurable with its intended legislative purpose (ʿillah).

This article deals with an essential part of Islamic law usually referred to as siyar. It discusses the development of siyar in an Islamic context and in comparison to the development of the modern law of nations. It further follows up the evaluation of siyar in the Western literature and analyses recurring paradigms of categorisation used in this literature. The author discusses Kruse's (1979) approach to differentiate between an "Islamic" and a "Muslim" law of nations. As case studies of argumentative weaknesses and loopholes, the author scrutinizes the attempts to attribute siyar to a particular type of law of nations and to render it as a legal order of either personal or territorial validity. The article focuses on methodological aspects involved in presenting two independent legal systems as commensurable. The author concludes that a terminological transfer, be it with the intention of explaining Islamic legal concepts to a non-specialized reader, be it with the intention to reconcile between both systems, cannot do justice to either one of the legal systems.

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This paper gives insight into the Islamic bioethical discussion on harvesting and using human embryonic (hESC) and adult stem cells. It describes some of the Islamic legal mechanisms involved in the bioethical discourse among Muslims. As the contemporary Islamic bioethical discourse is very diverse, the paper focuses on the critical discussion of related resolutions of the Saudi-based Islamic Fiqh Academy due to the esteem in which the IFA is held in the Islamic world and the pertinence of their rulings on this issue. This study discusses the different sources of human adult and embryonic stem cells and their use from an Islamic perspective, while questioning some directions the Islamic bioethical discourse has taken. The paper invites interested parties to deliberate the use of some of the legal means resorted to in the ongoing Islamic bioethical discourse.

Biotechnology has opened a new chapter with the advent of mitochondria transplantation for cell-based therapy. Mitochondrial transplantation was successfully led to birth; however, cytoplasmic transplantation has caused apprehension, since the mixing of human ooplasm from two different maternal sources may generate mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) heteroplasmy in the offspring. Islamic legal verdicts on human cloning and somatic cell transfer have been overweighing explicit as to its prohibition, due to the change of creation, mixing of lineage and other evaluations. Is mitochondria transplantation equivalent to human cloning in that genetic information is proliferated and does it, therefore, take the same legal rule? Are there possible benefits (masalih) for medical treatment that may render mitochondria transplantation permissible, or are possible harms (mafasid) overweighing? Or is it a completely different procedure, taking a different rule? The paper will investigate into these questions and discuss the dimensions of Islamic ethics on the issue.Â