Iraq's Federal Supreme Court has now, finally, ruled on a matter concerning Article 2, requiring all legislation to be in conformity with the "settled rulings" of Islam.  My thoughts are contained in the link below, so I won't repeat them here, other than to say this is exciting stuff for law nerds like me.  Essentially, it appears to be a collision between two competing processes involving shari'a and Iraq that I have been discussing in my work.  The first of these is the near total withdrawal of shari'a from the law of the nation state generally as concerns matters of commerce.  Sistani may be obeyed when it comes to demands for democracy, his rules of contract are completely and totally ignored, and the Court feels comfortable telling him and the jurists implicitly that fact.  The other is the reluctance of the Court to engage Najaf, hence picking this particular subject, at the margins of relevance for modern shari'a, rather than something the Iraqi faithful might care about.  Cross those boundaries, and there might be more of a fight.  I don't think the Court wants that, though clearly, by making this ruling, it's shown it wants to assert itself in some way.  Exciting to see how this develops.  Link below

http://jurist.org/forum/2011/02/religion-and-law-in-iraq-a-noteworthy-federal-supreme-court-opinion.php

HAH