A New Look at the Agency of Qadis: Israeli Sharia Courts as a Case Study

In the literature on Islamic law, qadis are usually depicted as lower-level jurists, who are marginalized by other actors in the Sharia field (such as muftis, author-jurists and legislators) and therefore have no significant impact on the development of Islamic law. The article calls for a reevaluation of this assessment, arguing that modem qadis actually possess far-reaching agency for transforming Islamic law. A case study of the Sharia courts in Israel serves as illustration for the argument. It is shown that qadis in Israel employ a broad range of judicial and extra-judicial mechanisms for the purpose of introducing innovations into applied Islamic law in their courts. In particular, the article dwells on judicial tools for reforms such as procedural reforms, innovations in evidence rules, and several types of material reforms (takhayyur, hybridization of Islamic and non-Islamic principles, and the continuous operationalization of Islamic concepts).