Sovereignty over Minerals and Petroleum in the Islamic (Shariah) Law and the Question of Ownership
Article from: OGEL 1 (2006), in In the Spotlight
Abstract
In the Islamic (Sharia) Law the earthly sovereignty belongs only to God, who is sovereign in its political sense and who has the sole power to legislate. This does not rule out the independent existence of the modern nation -state, Islamic or otherwise, nor of its individual sovereignty in international law. Nor did it in the past affect the monarchical rights of the Islamic Emperors, Kings, Emirs and earthly rulers of Persia (Iran), Iraq, Bahrain, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, more or less absolute in most cases, and who might dispose to Third Parties of the rights in minerals and ...