Abstract

The introduction underscores the role the so-called Arab springs have taken on in the debate in Islam and democracy in the Muslim world. The article by Ben Achour identifies an "Arab neoconstitutionalism" as a positive outcome of the Tunisian Arab spring. This form of constitutionalism reveals itself to be profoundly different from the Western form, for it has given birth to a "civil state" but has done so on the basis of a religious ethic. The article by Raja Bahlul widens the scope of Ben Achour's analysis by discussing Islamic law in comparison with legal positivism. The text uses the categories of Western legal thought to expound the critique that Mu'tazilism makes of Ash'arism, conceived as an Islamic legal positivism.