Faculty Profile

Zubair Abbasi completed his doctorate at the Faculty of Law, Oxford University. The focus of his doctoral thesis was on the transplantation of the English legal system in colonial India and the interaction between Islamic law (Fiqh) and English law in this process. He conducted a case study of the developments in Islamic waqf law under the British legal system by analysing the jurisprudence developed in the judgments of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council and various Indian High Courts. His research revealed the crucial role played by Muslim lawyers, judges, ‘ulama’, and politicians in the formation of Anglo-Muhammadan Law (later called Muslim Personal Law). It showed how they simultaneously negotiated and collaborated with, and resisted the colonial administrators in the making and operation of the new Indian legal system.  

Dr Abbasi is currently exploring the legal process of the ‘judicial Islamisation’ of laws in Pakistan in the historical context of the convergence of the principles of Islamic law and English law in colonial India. He is also examining the relationship between Sharia and the modern state in the larger context of the scholarship that explores the relationship between different legal systems and their impact on the economic and political development of a country.

Dr Abbasi is interested in comparative commercial and organisational law and its impact on economic and political developments in the developing world, especially in South Asia and the Middle East. He holds an LL.M Corporate Governance, Manchester University and LL.B (Hons) Sharia & Law, International Islamic University Islamabad. He practiced as a commercial and corporate lawyer in Islamabad for several years before joining academia. Dr Abbasi has published in the areas of corporate legal theory, classical Islamic law, Indian legal history, law and finance, and law and development.

At LUMS, Dr Abbasi teaches Islamic Jurisprudence, Muslim Personal Law and an elective course on Comparative Corporate Law and Governance.

Publications

Abbasi, Muhammad Zubair, Judicial Ijtihad as a Tool for Legal Reform: Extending Women’s Right to Divorce under Islamic Law in Pakistan, Islamic Law and Society, 24 (2017): 384-411.

Abbasi, Muhammad Zubair, Cheema, Shahbaz Ahmad, Family Laws in Pakistan (Oxford University Press 2018) (forthcoming)

Abbasi, Muhammad Zubair, Women’s Right to Unilateral No-fault Based Divorce in Pakistan and India, Jindal Global Law Review, 7 (2016): 81-95.

Abbasi, Muhammad Zubair, Sharia and State Law: Relevance of Islamic Legal History for the Application of Muslim Family Law in the West, Journal of Law, Religion and State, 2(3) 2015, 124-38.

Abbasi, Muhammad Zubair, Islamic Law and Social Change: An Insight into the Making of Anglo-Muhammadan Law, (Oxford) Journal of Islamic Studies, 3 (25) 2014, 263-297.

Abbasi, Muhammad Zubair, Colonial State and Muslim Institutions: History of Regulatory Framework for Awqaf (Religious Endowments) in British India in Brown, Rajeswary Ampalavanar and Pierce, Justin, Charities in the Non-Western World: The Development and Regulation of Indigenous and Islamic Charities (2013 Routledge) 310-32.

Abbasi, Muhammad Zubair, The Classical Islamic Law of Waqf: A Concise Introduction, Arab Law Quarterly, Vol. 26, No. 2, 2012, 121-53.

Abbasi, Muhammad Zubair, Legal Analysis of Agency Theory: An Inquiry into the Nature of Corporation, International Journal of Law and Management, Vol. 51, No. 6, 2009, 401-420.    

Abbasi, Muhammad Zubair, Legal Person and Determination of the Legal Personality of a Government Department, Journal of Pakistan Law Digest, September 2006, 97.

Book review: Muhammad Zubair Abbasi (2010) “The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World”, International Journal of Law and Management, Vol. 52: 4, 332–335.

Book Review: Muhammad Zubair Abbasi (2012) “Muslim Endowments and Society in British India”, Journal of Law and Social Policy, (Vol. 1, No. I) January 2012, Islamabad, 87-89.

Conferences and Seminars

Presented a paper: ‘Women’s Right to Divorce between Law and Social Reality in Pakistan’ at Islamic Law and its Implementation in Asia and the Middle East Conference held at BIICL, Charles Clore House, 17 Russell Square, London on Friday 6 October 2017.

Presented a paper: ‘Family Waqf under the English Legal System in British India’ at Muslim Endowments in Asia: Waqf, Charity and Circulation Conference held at Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore on 19-20 October 2016.

Presented a paper: ‘Law and Economic Efficiency: English Private Property Law and Muslim Family Endowments (awqāf) in British India’ at Annual Economic History Society Conference held at Cambridge University on 1-3 April 2016.

Presented a paper: ‘Shari‘a Law and State Law: Balancing Religion with Politics under the Islamic Legal System’ at Regulating Religion: Normativity and Change at the Intersection of Law and Religion held at the Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore on December 14 and 15, 2015.

Presented a paper: ‘Co-existence of Shari‘a and the Modern Sate: A Historical Perspective from South Asia’ at Annual Workshop of the Institute for Global Law & Policy held at Harvard Law School between June 1 - 4, 2015.

Presented a paper: ‘Living within the limits prescribed by Allah: Post-colonial Judiciary and Women’s Right to Divorce under Islamic Law in Pakistan’ at Conference on Gender and the Colonial held at SOAS Centre for Gender Studies, University of London between May 12 to 14, 2015.

Presented a paper: ‘Judicial Ijtihad as a Tool for Legal Reform: Extending Women’s Right to Divorce under Islamic Law in Pakistan’ at Workshop ‘Islamic Family Law: How Change is advocated’ held at the Harvard Law School, Cambridge, Massachusetts on 12-13 February 2015.

Presented a paper: ‘Relevance of Islamic Legal History in the Debate on the Application Muslim Family Law in the West’ at International Fiqh Conference on Current Issues in Muslim Personal Laws: Between Sharia and State Legislation held at International Islamic University Islamabad on 13-15 May 2014.

Presented a paper: ‘Non-legislating State: Islamic Law and Modern State in the Discourse on Judicial Islamisation of Property Laws in Pakistan’ at Property in South Asia: History, Law and Politics held at the University of Pennsylvania Law School on 18-19 April 2014.

Presented a paper: ‘Law and Economic Efficiency: English Private Property Law and Muslim Family Endowments (awqāf) in British India’ at Institutions and their Discontents: Rethinking Economic Development in South Asia held at Cambridge University on 17-18 March 2014.

Presented a paper: ‘Co-existence of Sharīʿa and the Modern State: A Historical Perspective from South Asia’ at The Shari’a Project: A UK-Netherlands Network of Scholars of Islamic Law Fourth Workshop held at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter with guest scholar, Professor Wael Hallaq from Columbia University on February 6 and 7, 2014.

Presented a paper: ‘Sharī‘a under the English Legal System: Awqāf (Endowments) in the Making of Anglo-Muhammadan Law’ at Oxford Legal History Forum, Faculty of Law, Oxford University on Tuesday 19 November 2013.

Presented a paper: ‘Islamic Family Settlements and the English Rule against Perpetuities’ at Property Law Discussion Group Faculty of Law, Oxford University on Thursday 31st October 2013.

Presented a paper: ‘Judicial Ijtihād: Contribution of the English Legal System in the Development of Islamic law’ at Conference ‘Exploring New Directions in the Islamic Legal Tradition: Human Rights and Legal Reform in the 21st Century’ held at Law School Brunel University on 18 June 2013.

Presented a paper: ‘The Genesis of Business Corporations: A Comparative Historical Analysis’ at Annual Meeting of the Economic History Conference held at York University on 5-7 April 2013.

Presented a paper: ‘Different Patterns of the Development of Business Organisations in the Middle East and Europe: An Analysis of Diversity from Legal Perspective’ at Annual Meeting of the Economic History Conference held at Oxford University 30 March-1 April 2012.

Presented two papers on Classical Islamic Law of Waqf; and Developments in Waqf Law in British India at Islamic Research Institute, International Islamic University Islamabad on 10 and 14 January 2012.

Presented a paper: ‘Colonial State and Muslim Institutions: History of Regulatory Framework for Awqāf (Religious Endowments) in British India’ at International Conference on “Philanthropy, the State and Globalisation” held at the University of Hong Kong on 6-8 December 2012.

Presented a paper: ‘Legal Analysis of Agency Theory: An Inquiry into the Nature of Corporation’ at International Graduate Legal Research Conference held at King’s College London on 7-8 April 2011.

Presented a paper: ‘What caused the rise of Business Corporations? An analysis inspired by the Middle Eastern Experience’ at PhD Law Conference held at Queen Mary, London on 7 June 2011.

Presented a paper: ‘Making Sense of the Pure Theory of Law in the Real World: A Perspective from Pakistan’ at Rights, Morality, and the Law Conference held at Birmingham University on 21 September 2010.

Training Workshops

Contributed a paper: ‘Islamic Law and Modern State in the Discourse on Judicial Islamisation of Property Laws in Pakistan’ at Harvard Law School Institute for Global Law & Policy (IGL&P) held Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Doha between January 2 and 12, 2015.

Contributed a paper: ‘The Genesis of Business Corporations: A Comparative Historical Analysis’ at European Historical Economics Society Summer School held at Carlos III University Madrid, Spain between June 27–30, 2012.

Contributed a paper: ‘Law and Economic Efficiency: English Private Property Law and Muslim Family Endowments (awqāf) in British India’ at Residential training course for postgraduate students held at Chancellors, University of Manchester during 28 November– 1 December 2012.

Contributed a paper: ‘Why Did Corporations Develop in Europe and not in the Middle East?’ at PhD course on Ideologies, Ideas and Values during the Industrial Revolution held at Gothenburg University, Sweden on 4-9 September 2011.