DR ‹ › Moroccan anthropologist and political theorist Youssef Belal has been awarded the Hart-SLSA Book Prize 2026 by the Socio-Legal Studies Association for his book The Life of Shari'a: A Comparative Anthropology of Law, published by University of California Press, Belal announced this Thursday. The prize, considered the most prestigious in legal and socio-legal studies in the United Kingdom, «celebrates exceptional socio-legal scholarship, recognizing the most outstanding book published in the year», according to the jury. In his work, Belal explores shari'a not merely as a legal system, but as a form of knowledge with its own concepts and intellectual traditions. The book traces both the historical development of Islamic scholarly thought and Western understandings of law, offering a comparative perspective that reexamines the foundations of modern legal systems and highlights the continued relevance of shari'a in contemporary Muslim societies. Youssef Belal, who has taught at Columbia University and the University of California, Berkeley, is also a UN diplomat and peace mediator. He previously served as political director of UN missions in the Middle East, Central Asia, and the Horn of Africa, and was a member of Princeton's Institute for Advanced Study in 2016. He is also the author of Le cheikh et le calife: Sociologie religieuse de l'Islam politique au Maroc.
