Die Systematisierung des islamischen Rechts

Islamic law is rarely considered particularly systematic or coherent. However, an analysis of the development of the Islamic notions of equity ( istiḥsān, sometimes also translated as »juristic preference« or »favourable construction«) between the second/eighth and the eighth/fourteenth centuries proves this presumption wrong. During this time period, istiḥsān was a driving force with regard to the systematisation of Islamic law. This serves as an example of the profound structural transformation Islamic legal theory underwent in its post-formative stage. Simultaneously, a teleological notion of natural law in an Aristotelian tradition comes to the fore. It is based on the presumption that law is coherent - that equal things are treated equally while unequal things are treated unequally.