First the Maldives, Then Iraq?

Law students in a seminar at Penn are tackling an ambitious project. They are attempting to rewrite the criminal code of the Republic of the Maldives, a human rights-challenged island nation in the Indian Ocean. The code is to move the Maldives toward a more Western concept of criminal law while retaining ties to the Islamic Shariah law adhered to by most folks on the island. While some observers are upset at the idea that a code respectful for human rights can be derived from Shariah, others are hopeful that if the project is a success it could serve as a model for other Muslim nations.