Zubair Abbasi

Zubair Abbasi is a research fellow at Oxford University. His work focuses on the relationship between sharī‘a and state law in South Asia, Middle East, and Western Europe; Islamic law and jurisprudence (uṣūl al-fiqh) in contemporary world; and  comparative law, family law and constitutional law.

He completed DPhil in Law at Oxford University. In his doctoral thesis titled, “Sharī‘a under the English Legal System in British India: Awqāf (Endowments) in the Making of Anglo-Muhammadan Law”, he explored the formation of Muslim Personal Law in British India. His current research project explores the process of judicial Islamization of laws in Pakistan by examining the judgments of the Federal Shariat Court—a special court mandated to exercise Islamic judicial review. This project analyses the sources, methodologies, and methodological tools used by the judges of the Federal Shariat Court and evaluates the impact of Islamization of laws upon the legal system in Pakistan.

His recent publications include a co-authored book, Family Laws in Pakistan (Oxford University Press 2018). He has also published numerous articles in Islamic Law and Society, Journal of Islamic Studies, and Journal of Law, Religion and State. He is the Chief Editor of the LUMS Law Journal and an Editor for the Harvard Law School’s SHARIAsource. He held research fellowships at Oxford University.


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