Contemporary Challenges in Harmonizing Sharia, National Legal Systems, and International Law in a Rapidly Changing World

Abstract

This study critically examines the contemporary challenges of harmonizing Sharia, national legal systems, and international law in an era defined by rapid globalization, digital transformation, and expanding transnational regulation. Using a qualitative, doctrinal, and comparative legal methodology, the article analyzes how constitutional identity, human rights norms, economic globalization, technological disruption, and political instrumentalization shape the interaction among these three normative orders. The findings reveal that tensions arise less from inherent doctrinal incompatibility than from conflicting sources of legal authority, fragmented institutional governance, and uneven interpretive methodologies. While areas such as Islamic finance and commercial law demonstrate successful models of harmonization, domains such as human rights, family law, and criminal punishment remain sites of persistent normative conflict. The study further identifies technological change as the leading driver of normative disruption, producing a condition of regulatory and juristic lag. It argues that sustainable harmonization requires a maqāṣid-based interpretive framework, strengthened judicial and legislative institutions, protection of judicial independence, and the institutionalization of collective ijtihād. The article contributes theoretically by integrating legal pluralism with maqāṣid al-sharīʿa and offers practical guidance for policymakers and jurists seeking ethically grounded and institutionally coherent legal harmonization in Muslim-majority states.