International Society for Islamic Legal Studies (ISILS)

The International Society for Islamic Legal Studies (ISILS) was conceived in 2003, in Murcia, Spain, during the convening of the Fourth International Conference on Islamic Legal Studies (ILS). A group of participants came together to take steps to establish a more official body for the planning and organizing of the triennial conference that began as the Joseph Schacht Conference on Theory and Practice in Leiden and Amsterdam in the Netherlands, in 1994.

Since that first conference, organized to attract submissions for the newly launched journal Islamic Law and Society, three more conferences had been organized by the same founding parents of the Leiden/Amsterdam conference, who were beginning to feel that they should not be monopolizing the choice of conference theme and location.

In May 2004, articles of organization were filed with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, effectively incorporating the International Society for Islamic Legal Studies. The statutory articles can be found in the Corporate Database (fill in the society’s name) at: www.sec.state.ma.us/cor/coridx.htm.

As of June 2012 the membership had grown to 83 members, from 47 at the time of the first Business Meeting in 2006. The next census-taking will be on the occasion of the fourth Business Meeting, convened at the Eighth ILS Conference in 2015. The website was launched in December 2007. ISILS is deeply appreciative of those members who contributed funds in addition to membership dues to make the website possible.

ISILS Membership Information

ISILS is open to all who are interested in the academic study of Islamic law. There are two classes of membership: regular and student. Student members must present evidence at the time of membership of full-time enrollment in an institution of higher learning.

Both types of membership include voting privileges at ISILS Business Meetings, which are held at every ILS conference; participation in member-only discussion forums on the website; and a reduced or waived fee for conference registration (depending on the agreement the ISILS Board has reached with the conference host institution). The membership fee of $75 (regular) / $40 (student) is for a period of three years. The present membership period runs from January 2017 through December 2019.

Past Conferences

8^th International Conference of the International Society for Islamic Legal Studies: “Islamic Law and Ethics”

Coinciding with the 6th Annual Conference of the Leiden University Centre for the Study of Islam and Society (LUCIS)

November 6-8, 2015 | Leiden, The Netherlands

7^th International Conference of the International Society for Islamic Legal Studies: “Islamic Law and the State”

Convened under the auspices of the Turkish Historical Association, Ankara

May 30, 2012 | Ankara, Turkey

Keynote Speech: Halil Inalcik (Bilkent University, Ankara)

6^th International Conference of the International Society for Islamic Legal Studies: “Islamic Law and Custom”

July 13-15, 2009 | University of Exeter, UK

Incorporated in 2004, ISILS is an international, non-profit, and non-political organization that aims to encourage scholarship on and to foster communication about Islamic law and related subjects. ISILS’s primary focus is the organization and convening of the Islamic Legal Studies (ILS) conferences, which are held triennially. ISILS is open to all who are interested in the academic study of Islamic law.

Executive Board