Volume 22 of the Yearbook of Islamic and Middle Eastern Law covers the period from 2021 to 2022. Similar to the sobering observations made in the Preface to the previous volume, many of the countries and regions covered in this volume continue to be overshadowed by armed conflict, extreme weather events and economic hardships. At the time of writing this Preface, the latest development along these lines are the events in Sudan, where the country’s long-standing tensions between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Force have now erupted in an all-out armed conflict, with entire neighbourhoods of the capital, Khartoum, destroyed and abandoned.

Turning to the content of this year’s volume, the Yearbook continues to combine specialist and general country surveys with research-based articles. Edited by Dr Amel Makhlouf, the general country surveys cover Afghanistan, Bahrain, Algeria, Iran, Jordan, Kuwait, Libya, Malaysia, Morocco, Oman, Palestine and the United Arab Emirates. In addition, the specialist surveys for Tunisia and Türkiye respectively focus on recent developments in the law of arbitration and public law. Four surveys on Egypt present and analyse recent developments in the law of arbitration, criminal law, construction law and recent trends and developments in public law.

As a new development, volume 22 has added to the general and specialist surveys a number of contributions that focus on human rights in the Middle East. Commissioned by Dr Amel Makhlouf, these contributions capture and analyse a wide range of legal developments in the area of human rights. Three surveys, all authored by Radhika Kanchana, are concerned with recent developments in the protection of the rights of migrant workers and of women in the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Bahrain. In addition, Zohra Aziadé Zemirli explores developments in the protection of human rights in Algeria and Laura Kabis-Kechrid analyses human rights in Türkiye with a focus on freedom of expression and the right to liberty and security.

Produced by leading practitioners and academics, the country surveys published in this volume, as well as those in the past, are authored within a very short period of time and submitted and edited to very tight deadlines. By way of this Preface, and on behalf of the entire editorial team, I thank all of the authors and contributors of country surveys for their valued contributions, in the hope and expectation of their continued support for future volumes of the Yearbook.

Four articles, already published in YIMEL’s on-line version, are included in volume 22. Edited by Mr Tachfine Baida, Managing Editor of articles, and Dr Zubair Abbasi, Associate Editor, these articles cover developments in the law of arbitration in Iran, authored by Sima Ghaffari and Rasoul Kashkouli, the issue of so-called honour crimes in the West Bank, authored by Ayah-Omran Randall, the use of the rule of necessity in the reconciliation of the resolution of housing problems with Islamic law in Iran, authored by M.A. Ansaripour, as well as the interrogation of the concepts of victim’s vs. offender’s family in Islamic jurisprudence, authored by Gaber Mohamed.

The publication of volume 22 of YIMEL would not have been possible without the many hours of work spent by the members of the editorial team, Dr Amel Makhlouf, Mr Tachfine Baida and Dr Zubair Abbasi, in commissioning, reviewing and editing every single of the many contributions listed in the table of content. Having successfully revitalised the survey parts of both volumes 21 and 22, Dr Makhlouf has decided to leave the editorial team with the publication of this volume. I extend my gratitude to Dr Makhlouf for her unstinting support and service as Managing Editor of country surveys. My thanks also go to Mr Tachfine Baida and Dr Zubair Abbasi who, having mastered Brill’s Editorial Manager software, have been responsible for the production of the research-based articles, both those published in advance as well as those published in this volume.

I am grateful to the members of the Board of Editors who have offered sound advice on a number of occasions and who have contributed their time and expertise in reviewing manuscripts. Volume 22 could not have been published without the many colleagues who acted as peer reviewers for both surveys and articles: Elisa Giunchi Ada, Hussein Ahmed Hussein Mohamed Allam, Gordon Blanke, Shahbaz Ahmad Cheema, Baudouin Dupret, Amr Abdelazim Elkhouly, Youseph Farah, Haider Ala Hamoudi, Ahmed Habib, Ahmed Tarek Hussein, Emad Hussein, Abdur Rauf Khattana, Clark Lombardi, Mohammad Hashim Kamali, Hosein Mohebi and Tilmann Röder.

As a very welcome development, for the production of volume 22, the editorial team was supported by the newly inaugurated YIMEL Student Fellowship. I and the whole editorial team express our gratitude to Ms Sarah Tamimi, Ms Rana Osman and Mr Mohammad Kamran Ahmed, who, as the very first Student Fellows of the Yearbook of Islamic and Middle Eastern Law, have volunteered much time and effort for the production of this volume as well as the marketing and promotion of YIMEL. All of the Student Fellows are current or former law students of the School of Law of SOAS, University of London.

As in previous years, I owe a special debt of gratitude to the whole team at Brill. With their customary professionalism and efficiency, Ms Ingeborg van der Laan and Mr Peter Groen have again managed all aspects of the production of volume 22 of YIMEL. I convey many thanks to Ms Ingeborg van der Laan and Mr Peter Groen for their wonderful work for this and for future volumes of the Yearbook. Finally, as in previous years, I owe a special debt of gratitude to Ms Marie Sheldon, who, as Brill’s Publishing Director, International Law, has continued to offer wise counsel and professional support for the production of the Yearbook of Islamic and Middle Eastern Law.

Martin Lau

London, June 2023