February 13, 2008
A Comparison of Shi'i and Sunni Approaches to Religious Authority in Contemporary Islam
Haider Ala Hamoudi, Associate Professor of Law, University of Pittsburgh
Noon, 2628 Cathedral of Learning
Department of Religious Studies Brown Bag Lunch Colloquium
Haider Ala Hamoudi, who received his J.D. from Columbia Law School, is a specialist on international human rights law. He acted as both a legal advisor to the Finance Committee of the Iraq Governing Council, as well as a Program Manager for a project managed by the International Human Rights Law Institute of DePaul University School of Law to improve legal education in Iraq. Dr. Hamoudi continues to advise the Iraqi Government, primarily through the Iraq Mission at the United Nations. His scholarship focuses on commercial law, Islamic law, and the intersection of the two in the contemporary era. He has written for numerous law reviews, has spoken at conferences sponsored by the American Association of Law Schools and the New York City Bar Association, and given interviews to news organizations varying from the McNeil-Lehrer News Hour Online to the New York Law Journal. Dr. Hamoudi's publications include "Toward the Establishment of a Rule of Law Society: Introducing Clinical Legal Education Into Iraqi Law Schools" (Berkeley Journal of International Law, Winter 2005); "Jurisprudential Schizophrenia: Form and Function in Islamic Finance" (Chicago Journal of International Law, Winter 2007); "Money Laundering Amidst Mortars: Legislative Process and State Authority in Post Invasion Iraq" (Transnational Law and Contemporary Problems, Spring 2007); "Muhammad's Social Justice or Muslim Cant: Langdellianism and the Failures of Islamic Finance" (Cornell International Law Review, Fall 2007), and "You Say You Want a Revolution: Interpretive Communities and the Origins of Islamic Finance" (Virginia Journal of International Law, Fall 2007). In the spring of 2008, Dr. Hamoudi will be publishing a memoir of his experiences in Iraq entitled Howling in Mesopotamia.
