Penn Law School Students Help Draft a Criminal Code for the Maldives

Aug. 24, 2004

PHILADELPHIA Some University of Pennsylvania Law School students will have a unique opportunity to help the Maldives rewrite its criminal code.

The Maldives, a nation of 1,200 islands in the Indian Ocean, is in the process of reforming its criminal laws.  The country's citizens are Muslim, and its current criminal code is based on the Islamic law Shari'a.  

Students in Penn Law Professor Paul Robinson's course, "Seminar in Islamic Criminal Law: Drafting a Criminal Code For The Maldives," will study existing Maldivian criminal-law statutes and criminal-law principles under Shari'a.  Some students will have the opportunity to travel to the Maldives with Robinson as he works on the project.

Robinson has assisted the U.S. and other countries in rewriting criminal codes.  

The United Nations is sponsoring the project to draft a criminal code in a modern format for the Maldivian government.  "The thought occurred to me that, if I were a student, I would like to work on such a project, and that's how the idea for the seminar was born," Robinson said.  

"The Maldives does not allow the classic barbaric punishments of Shari'a, such as cutting off the hands of thieves or stoning adulterers to death.  The country abolished the death penalty more than a half-century ago," Robinson said.  "My goal is to help make their criminal code just.  Since they are seeking advice on reforms, this is their goal as well.  This will give them an alternative perspective and give them options that other parts of the world think are more palatable," Robinson said.

The criminal code draft is scheduled to be presented to the Maldivian government in early 2005.