Harvard Law School Thinks Big 2014

Once a year for several years now Harvard Law School has held a gathering, modeled on the TED talks, asking several scholars to give short (8 min.) presentations about big ideas.  In May, 2014 these presentations included

• "The Future of Scholarly Publishing and How to Stop It" by Jonathan Zittrain
• "Finding the Child in Child Welfare" by Elizabeth Bartholet
• "Linking Law and Movements" by Tyler Giannini 
• "Back to the Future of Islamic Law: Digital Islamic Law" by Intisar Rabb 
• "From Court to Table" by Jacob Gersen

You find a video of the whole event (1h 30 min) with the questions and comments after the talks here.

Islamic Justice

In May the University of California Television series Legally Speaking interviewed Sadakat Kadri, an English barrister and human rights lawyer whose 2012 book is entitled Heaven on Earth: A Journey Through Shari’a Law from the Deserts of Ancient Arabia to the Streets of the Modern Muslim World in May. 55 min., audio (mp3) or video (mp4), no transcript, but you can find a short article about the interview here.

Secularity and Religious Identity: The French Headscarf Dilemma

This video was filmed at a 2008 Conference - Hope, Critique, and Possibility: Universal Rights in Societies of Difference - organized by a group called Facing History and Ourselves, in partnership with the Harvard Law School

on YouTube 9:47 min. no script

Facing History has videos on other themes such as

• Armenian Genocide,
• the U.S. civil rights movement
• Darfur
• genocide
• the Holocaust
• immigration
• the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Law in Action is back with its first program in a new series, examining the question of the plausibility of the claim that the medieval Islamic world influenced the 12th Century foundations of English common law.

Sharia and English Law The Archbishop of Canterbury recently suggested incorporating elements of shariah law into the English legal system. NPR's Talk of the Nation, February 18, 2008 has a 30 min. discussion (no transcript) of what happens when religious courts and civil law intersect. Use this link if you have the latest Flash player. If you want the recording with RealPlayer, click here. The BBC, of course, has many audio and video clips on the subject which can be found here and a good general presentation of sharia here which includes a recording of the remarks of the Archbishop (9:09 min. with transcript).

Shari'a (Islamic Law) Professor Frank Griffel from the Department of Religious Studies at Yale University, and Professor Bernard Haykel from the Department of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University discuss the topic of Islamic law. The discussion can be heard here on the Leonard Lopate Show - November 6, 2007. 33 min., mp3, no script