News Archive

Professor Mohamed ‘Arafa, S.J.D. ’13, is serving as a Visiting Scholar-in-Residence at American University in Beirut, Lebanon, through November 2020. He will resume his tenure at Alexandria Law School in Egypt at the completion of his residence in Lebanon. Professor ‘Arafa will return to Cornell Law School for the Spring 2021 semester. At Cornell, he will teach a new class, titled Anti-Corruption Laws: Rule of Law, Practice, and Public Policy, as an adjunct professor.

Professor ‘Arafa has presented a variety of webinars recently. These include:

• “Criminal Victimization: Does Prison Work?” during the 2^nd Distinguished Speaker Series at the University Center of Brasília in Brazil on May 21.
• “Waiting for the Bad to Get Worse: Does the COVID-19 Pandemic Kills Human Rights in the Muslim World?” as part of the University of Brasília Law Review’s  podcast on May 22. In this interview, he discussed his 2015 article published in the Indiana International and Comparative Law Review titled “Judicial Corporal Punishment in the United States? Lessons from Islamic Criminal Law for Curing the Ills of Mass Incarceration.” This piece was translated and published in Revista dos Estudantes de Direito da Universidade de Brasília (Vol. 1, Issue 17, 2020).  
• “Pandemic Stresses the Human Rights Imperatives: Whither the Middle East?” as part of the Summer Speaker Series at the Centro Universitário Ritter dos Reis in Porto Alegre, Brazil on June 22.
• “Coronavirus Stokes Middle East Boiling Point: Corruption as a Ticking Time Bomb” as a guest speaker during the Brazilian Bar Association’s meeting on July 21.
• “Cyberactivism and Digital Resistance in the Middle East and the Muslim World: A Story of Hope” during the Distinguished Lecture Series at the Pontifical Catholic University of Paraná in Curitiba, Brazil, on August 21. This is where Professor ‘Arafa received his post-doctoral fellowship in 2018.

In addition, Professor ‘Arafa has had several pieces of his scholarship published. These include:

• “Dreams without Illusions: The Bureaucratic Cholesterol, Administrative Corruption and the Future of a Real Democratic Middle East,” 54 New England Law Review (forthcoming Fall 2020), which appeared and was reprinted in Arabic at Siyasat ‘Arabiya Journal (2020).  
• “Islam and Democracy: Helping to Appreciate the Nuance and Complexity of Religious Legal Systems,” forthcoming in Fall 2020 in Barry Law Review with Massimo Campanini.
• “Islamic Jurisdiction: Sharie‘a Courts and the Future of Public Policy,” 25 Revista Direitos Fundamentais & Democracia  [Public Law, Fundamental Rights, & Democracy Law Review] (2020).

Professor 'Arafa is a Professor of Law at Alexandria University Faculty of Law in Egypt. He teaches Islamic Law and Comparative Middle Eastern Law as a visiting adjunct professor at IU McKinney.