2012 Bernstein Human Rights Symposium: Human Rights and Political Change in the Arab World

The 2012 Bernstein Human Rights Symposium to be held on March 29-30, 2012, will focus on the recent political changes in the Middle East and North Africa.  The four panels of the symposium will explore the development of human rights in the regions from multiple perspectives: from the onset of Arab Spring to toppling of regimes, and the revolutionary role played by social media in facilitating social and political changes.

The law library collection includes a wide range of print and electronic resources which can further assist scholarly research in these areas.  Selections of recent print acquisitions are as follows:

Contemporary works on human rights in the regions:

• The lingering conflict : Israel, the Arabs, and the Middle East, 1948-2011 / Itamar Rabinovich (2011)
• The Arab awakening : America and the transformation of the Middle East/ Kenneth M. Pollack ... [et al.] (2011)
• Human rights in the Middle East : frameworks, goals, and strategies / edited by Mahmood Monshipouri (2011)

On the interplay between Islam, legal systems and human rights:

• Understanding Islamic law : Sharīʻa / Raj Bhala.(2011)
• Islam and human rights : selected essays of Abdullahi An-Na'im / Abdullahi An-Na'im ; edited by Mashood A. Baderin (2010)
• Sharia incorporated : a comparative overview of the legal systems of twelve Muslim countries in past and present / editor, Jan Michiel Otto (2010)
  

On related issues concerning individual countries of the regions:

• Between feminism and Islam : human rights and Sharia Law in Morocco / Zakia Salime (2011)
• Competing fundamentalisms and Egyptian women's family rights : international law and the reform of Shari'a-derived legislation / by Jasmine Moussa (2011)
• Gender and Islam in Africa : rights, sexuality, and law / edited by Margot Badran (2011)
• Chaos in Yemen : societal collapse and the new authoritarianism / Isa Blumi (2011)

Looking forward, on constitutionalism in the regions:

• Constitutionalism in Islamic countries : between upheaval and continuity / edited by Rainer Grote and Tilmann J. Röder (2012)
• Revolution and constitutionalism in the Ottoman Empire and Iran / Nader Sohrabi (2011)
• Fostering constitutionalism in Africa / Charles Fombad and Christina Murray, editors (2010)

On the role of social media as an agent of political change:

• Media matters in the cultural contradictions of the "information society" : towards a human rights-based governance / Divina Frau-Meigs (2011)
• Human rights and a changing media landscape / contributors, Thomas Hammarberg ... [et al.] (2011)
• You are not a gadget : a manifesto / Jaron Lanier (2010)
• Here comes everybody : the power of organizing without organizations / Clay Shirky (2008)

The Library of Congress has a comprehensive bibliography on recently acquired works on Islamic law published in English.