Miscellaneous
A public lecture delivered by Dr Nimer Sultany (School of Law, SOAS) at the Department of Middle Eastern Studies, King's College London on 30 January 2018. What is the effect of revolutions on legal systems? What role do constitutions play in legitimating regimes? How do constitutions and revolutions converge or clash? This talk address these and other constitutional questions about the Arab Uprisings by drawing on the findings in the speaker's recently published book. The book, Law and Revolution: Legitimacy and Constitutionalism After the Arab Spring (Oxford University Press, 2017), urges a rethinking of major categories in political, legal, and constitutional theory in light of the Arab Spring. It offers a novel and comprehensive examination of the constitutional order that preceded and followed the Arab Spring in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Morocco, Jordan, Algeria, Oman, and Bahrain. It also provides the first thorough discussion of the trials of former regime officials in Egypt and Tunisia. Drawing on a wide range of primary sources, including an in-depth analysis of recent court rulings in several Arab countries, the book illustrates the contradictory roles of law and constitutions. It also contrasts the Arab Spring with other revolutionary situations and demonstrates how the Arab Spring provides a laboratory for examining scholarly ideas about revolutions, legitimacy, legality, continuity, popular sovereignty, and constituent power. The book is a novel and comprehensive examination of the constitutional order that preceded and followed the Arab Spring in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Morocco, Jordan, Algeria, Oman and Bahrain: http://bit.ly/2AAeSf8 NIMER SULTANY is Senior Lecturer in Public Law at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS). He holds a Doctor of Juridical Science degree from Harvard Law School, and was the recipient of the British Academy Fellowship. His book “Law and Revolution: Legitimacy and Constitutionalism After the Arab Spring” was published by Oxford University Press. He also published extensively on constitutional theory, Islamic constitutionalism, and Israeli jurisprudence.