The APSA Lasting Contribution Award from the Law & Courts Section is presented annually to a book or journal article written at least a decade ago that has made a lasting impression on the field of law and courts. Moustafa, a Professor of International Studies and Stephen Jarislowsky Chair at Simon Fraser University, will be honored in recognition of his first book:
The Struggle for Constitutional Power: Law, Politics, and Economic Development in Egypt
(Cambridge University Press 2007).
“There was a time when the study of law in authoritarian states raised eyebrows at APSA,” Moustafa said. “I remember awkward conversations at APSA receptions in the 1990s when senior scholars wondered if there was anything to study at all. So, I’m especially honored that the Law and Courts Section saw my book fit for the Lasting Achievement Award.”
Focusing on the Egyptian Supreme Constitutional Court,
The Struggle for Constitutional Power
examines how law and courts served as instruments of repression as well as surprisingly frequent sites of resistance in Mubarak’s Egypt. Moustafa’s book has been used to understand how law and courts function in authoritarian states and to understand more recent shifts towards authoritarian “rule by law” in many contemporary democracies.
Moustafa is no stranger to receiving accolades from the APSA, earning the organization’s Best Journal Article Award in the Law and Courts Section, for his article: “Islamic Law, Women’s Rights, and Popular Legal Consciousness in Malaysia" (
Law & Social Inquiry
, vol. 38, 168-188). He also was honored by the APSA in 2004, collecting the Edward S. Corwin Award for the best dissertation in the field of public law. However, Moustafa’s latest APSA honor made history, as it marks the first time the award was given for research focused exclusively on a non-U.S. case. It was also the first time the award was given for research on law and courts in a non-democratic context.
Moustafa began research for his first book as a Ph.D. student in 1997, when there was very little scholarship on the politics of courts in authoritarian contexts. Through two years of fieldwork, he conducted archival research and embedded himself into the fabric of the Egyptian legal/activist community, interviewing over 150 lawyers, judges, government officials and human rights and opposition activists.
The Struggle for Constitutional Power
provided a new theoretical approach for studying the politics of courts in authoritarian states.
An LSA member since 1999, Moustafa has been active among the sociolegal community, attending all but four Annual Meetings since then. He’s the Co-Founder and co-Chair (with Intisar Rabb of Harvard University) of the LSA’s Islamic Law and Society Collaborative Research Network (CRN), served on the Editorial Advisory Board for the
Law & Society Review
from 2016-19 and was a Trustee for the organization in addition to serving within several other governance positions throughout his career.
Moustafa recently released a new book,
Constituting Religion:
Islam, Liberal Rights, and the Malaysian State.
It is part of the Cambridge Studies in Law and Society Series and is
open access.
