Mark Fathi Massoud

Visiting Professor

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Faculty of Law

St. Cross Building,
St. Cross Road
Oxford OX1 3UL

Other affiliations

  • Center for Socio-Legal Studies
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Mark Fathi Massoud is Visiting Professor at the University of Oxford Faculty of Law, with the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies. 

Biography

Mark Fathi Massoud is Visiting Professor at the University of Oxford Faculty of Law. He is professor of politics and legal studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz (USA). Visit here for CV and publications. 

Publications

Recent additions

  • MF Massoud, Shari'a, Inshallah: Finding God in Somali Legal Politics (Cambridge University Press 2021)
    Hart-SLSA Book Prize, Socio-Legal Studies Association; PROSE Award Finalist in government & politics, Association of American Publishers
    Western analysts have long denigrated Islamic states as antagonistic, even antithetical, to the rule of law. Mark Fathi Massoud tells a different story: for nearly 150 years, the Somali people have embraced shari’a, commonly translated as Islamic law, in the struggle for national identity and human rights. Massoud upends the conventional account of secular legal progress and demonstrates instead how faith in a higher power guides people toward the rule of law.
  • MF Massoud, Law's Fragile State: Colonial, Authoritarian, and Humanitarian Legacies in Sudan (Cambridge University Press 2013)
    Herbert Jacob Book Prize, Law and Society Association; Honourable Mention, C. Herman Pritchett Award for best book on law and courts, American Political Science Association
    How do a legal order and the rule of law develop in a war-torn state? Using his field research in Sudan, the author uncovers how colonial administrators, postcolonial governments and international aid agencies have used legal tools and resources to promote stability and their own visions of the rule of law amid political violence and war in Sudan. Tracing the dramatic development of three forms of legal politics - colonial, authoritarian and humanitarian - this book contributes to a growing body of scholarship on law in authoritarian regimes and on human rights and legal empowerment programs in the Global South. Refuting the conventional wisdom of a legal vacuum in failed states, this book reveals how law matters deeply even in the most extreme cases of states still fighting for political stability.

All publications

Book (2)

MF Massoud, Shari'a, Inshallah: Finding God in Somali Legal Politics (Cambridge University Press 2021)
Hart-SLSA Book Prize, Socio-Legal Studies Association; PROSE Award Finalist in government & politics, Association of American Publishers
Western analysts have long denigrated Islamic states as antagonistic, even antithetical, to the rule of law. Mark Fathi Massoud tells a different story: for nearly 150 years, the Somali people have embraced shari’a, commonly translated as Islamic law, in the struggle for national identity and human rights. Massoud upends the conventional account of secular legal progress and demonstrates instead how faith in a higher power guides people toward the rule of law.
MF Massoud, Law's Fragile State: Colonial, Authoritarian, and Humanitarian Legacies in Sudan (Cambridge University Press 2013)
Herbert Jacob Book Prize, Law and Society Association; Honourable Mention, C. Herman Pritchett Award for best book on law and courts, American Political Science Association
How do a legal order and the rule of law develop in a war-torn state? Using his field research in Sudan, the author uncovers how colonial administrators, postcolonial governments and international aid agencies have used legal tools and resources to promote stability and their own visions of the rule of law amid political violence and war in Sudan. Tracing the dramatic development of three forms of legal politics - colonial, authoritarian and humanitarian - this book contributes to a growing body of scholarship on law in authoritarian regimes and on human rights and legal empowerment programs in the Global South. Refuting the conventional wisdom of a legal vacuum in failed states, this book reveals how law matters deeply even in the most extreme cases of states still fighting for political stability.

Research projects