Martin Lau

Personal Information

Prof Dr Martin Lau is a Professor of South Asian Law at the School of Oriental and African Studies (University of London) and a Barrister at Essex Court Chambers in London. He studied law and history at the University of Heidelberg and  SOAS from 1985 to 1989. In 2002 he was awarded a PhD on “The Role of Islam in the Legal System of Pakistan” by the University of London. Martin held visiting academic appointments at Harvard Law School and at Nagoya University and is the Editor-in-Chief of Brill’s Yearbook of Islamic and Middle Eastern Law.

Research Project

Titled Exempting Sharia: The Introduction of Civil Marriages in colonial India and its Impact on Muslim Personal Law, my research project examines the exclusion of Muslim Personal Law from the introduction of a law permitting civil marriages in 20th century British India. Introduced in 1923 as an amendment to the Special Marriage Act 1872, the new law permitted parties - for the first time in British Indian history - to enter into a valid, monogamous marriage without having to renounce their religion. In breaking the link between religious affiliation and governing family law, the new law introduced a civil marriage that was comparable to civil marriages as they had existed under English law since 1836. In examining the interactions and debates between the proponents of a civil form of marriage that did not require self-excommunication and the  defenders of the status quo, particular attention will be paid to the legal position and status of Sharia and Muslim Personal Law before and after the amendment in 1923. 

Publications

  • Lau, Martin (2026). A Right to Inequality? Islam and the Development of Pakistan's Personal Status Law System From Independence to the Present. In N. Bernard-Maugiron, B. Dupret, J.-L. Halpérin, R. Kanchana, A. Utriza Yakin, & Z. A. Zemirli (Eds.), Equality, Plurality and Personal Status Laws: A Research Companion Routledge.
  • Lau, Martin “Print, Publish, Punish: The Quran and the Law from Colonial India to Contemporary  Pakistan”  in: Arab Law Quarterly 38 (2024) 
  • Lau, Martin & Nasrallah, Faris “The Role of Public Policy”, in: Gordon Blanke, Mohamed S. Abdel Wahab, Nayla Comair-Obeid, Soraya Corm-Bakhos (eds) The MENA Leading Arbitrators’ Guide to International Arbitration (Juris 2023) 
  • Lau, Martin “The Public Policy Exception and International Commercial Arbitration in the MENA Region; A Contextual Analysis”, in: Gordon Blanke & Habib Al Mulla (eds), Arbitration in the MENA (Juris 2022)
  • Lau, Martin (ed.) 24 Yearbook of Islamic and Middle Eastern Law (2024)
  • Lau, Martin (ed.) 23 Yearbook of Islamic and Middle Eastern Law (2023)
  • Lau, Martin (ed.) 22 Yearbook of Islamic and Middle Eastern Law (2022)
  • Lau, Martin (ed.) 21 Yearbook of Islamic and Middle Eastern Law (2020)