Book Review: Law and Statehood in the Caliphate: An analysis of ISIS’ Legal Framework

Reviewed book: Islamic State as a Legal Order: To Have No Law but Islam, Between Shari'a and Globalization, Routledge (2022) - by Federico Lorenzo Ramaioli

Book review by Laura Berlingozzi

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The fall of the Syrian Arab Republic and the exile of Bashar al-Assad in 2024 have created a political vacuum, reshaping the region's balance of power. The establishment of a transitional government in Damascus reflects the attempt to redefine Syria’s political and institutional framework. In this context, the rise of former al-Qaeda affiliate Ahmad al-Shara' and his group Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham as a dominant force underscores the renewed importance of understanding how Shari'a-based legal orders can emerge and function in times of political instability. Federico Lorenzo Ramaioli’s Islamic State as a Legal Order: To Have No Law but Islam, Between Shari'a and Globalization offers essential insights into these dynamics, providing a framework for analysing the legal and ideological foundations of Islamist governance in the post-Assad era.

Ramaioli’s book explores the legal dimension of the Islamic State (ISIS), an aspect largely neglected in existing literature. While most analyses of ISIS focus on its geopolitical, military and religious aspects, the author shifts the focus to the legal framework that ISIS sought to establish. He argues that despite its brutality and radicalism, ISIS demonstrated a highly structured legal awareness, reflected in its governance and sophisticated juridical work found in its propaganda materials.

The book’s central question is: What is law for ISIS? The author defines legal order broadly as “a structure consisting exclusively of normative ideas” (p. 6). From this perspective, ISIS appears as a political entity, a religious movement and a state-building actor with a distinctive and internally consistent legal vision. The book is structured around two main tensions: first, the extension of classical Islamic concepts (such as jihād, khilāfah, takfīr, and hijrah) versus ISIS’s exclusionary and fundamentalist interpretation of them; second, the contrast between ISIS’s idealised vision of early Islam and the postmodern realities of globalisation and Western political dominance. The author demonstrates how ISIS’s legal framework reflects the interaction between shari'a and globalisation.

Ramaioli argues that ISIS aimed to create an autonomous legal order rooted exclusively in shari'a, rejecting human-made law and legal pluralism. This hypothesis challenges the perception of ISIS as merely a terrorist organisation, presenting it instead as a state-building project grounded in a rigid ideological and legal framework. The analysis benefits from his combined legal expertise and diplomatic experience. As an Italian diplomat and legal scholar serving as Deputy Head of Mission at the Italian Embassy in Qatar, Ramaioli examines how ISIS enforced this legal framework through Islamic criminal law (ḥudūd), the collection of taxes (jizyah) from non-Muslims and moral policing (ḥisbah). He contends that ISIS’s legal system was not improvised but a carefully constructed ideological project influenced by classical Islamic jurisprudence and modern fundamentalist thought.

The book begins with a historical overview of ISIS, tracing its evolution from Jamāʿat al-Tawḥīd wa al-Jihād under Abu Musab al-Zarqawi to its transformation into the Islamic State under Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. The volume details how ISIS exploited political instability in Iraq and Syria to establish territorial control and declare a caliphate in 2014. This historical context provides a foundation for understanding the ideological and legal motivations behind ISIS’s governance.

The analysis delves into the concept of shari'a, defining it as the “law of the jurists” (p. 26) and examining its historical and philosophical foundations. Ramaioli explores the distinction between shari'a and qānūn (state law) and how different interpretations of shari'a have shaped Islamic governance throughout history. The core of the book lies in Ramaioli’s examination of how ISIS interpreted and applied shari'a. He argues that ISIS’s legal theory was based on the principle of exclusivity, rejecting the coexistence of Islamic and human-made laws, which led to the systematic dismantling of pre-existing legal and political structures in territories under its control.

A particularly insightful section of the book addresses how ISIS enforced shari'a through the tax on non-Muslims (jizyah), penalties (ḥudūd) - for example, amputation, flogging, stoning - and the moral enforcement unit (ḥisbah) to regulate public morality. The author also addresses ISIS’s rejection of democracy and popular sovereignty, arguing that governance should be based solely on divine law. He explores how ISIS codified shari'a into a structured legal system, rejecting political pluralism or democratic participation. He also examines ISIS’s interpretation of jihād, framed not only as a military obligation but also as a political and legal principle. He shows how ISIS justified its state-building project through jihād, portraying it as both a religious duty and a means of establishing Islamic governance.

Ramaioli later discusses ISIS’s attempt to revive the classical institution of the caliphate and the theological and political challenges it faced from within the Muslim world and the broader international community. Despite its radical ideology, ISIS positioned itself as the legitimate heir to the Islamic caliphate, drawing on historical and religious narratives to justify its political claims. The book also explores ISIS’s use of technology and propaganda to create a “digital caliphate” (p. 179) and extend its influence beyond territorial borders. Ramaioli argues that ISIS’s ability to leverage modern communication tools allowed it to establish a global network of supporters and redefine the concept of the ummah (Muslim community) in a globalised context.

An especially valuable aspect of the book is its exploration of ISIS’s post-colonial, anti-Western legal perspective. The author argues that ISIS’s legal commitments also reflect a reaction to Western legal and political norms imposed during colonialism. This post-colonial framing adds depth to the analysis, showing how ISIS’s legal ideology is not just a radical interpretation of Islam but also a strategic response to Western dominance. The author’s interdisciplinary approach —drawing from philosophy, Islamic studies and international relations — further strengthens this analysis.

However, the book has some weaknesses. First of all, the absence of a clear methodological framework is noticeable. While the author relies heavily on Dabiq — ISIS’s propaganda magazine published between July 2014 and July 2016 — he does not clarify how these sources were selected and analysed. The limited timeframe raises concerns about the scope of the analysis. Moreover, the book is at times repetitive, and the analysis would have benefited from more case studies, such as comparisons with al-Qaeda or examples from ISIS branches beyond the core leadership. Finally, engaging with a broader range of sources — from traditional Islamic scholarship to social media — would have provided a more comprehensive understanding.

One of the main contributions of the book is that it highlights the paradoxes in ISIS’s conceptualisation of a legal order. While ISIS sought to create a rigid legal system based on a ‘pure’ vision of Islam, it simultaneously revisited and reinterpreted key notions — especially jihād — indicating an implicit evolution that contradicts the group's claim to religious and legal immutability. This shows that the classical categories of medieval Islam persist even today. Groups linked to al-Qaeda or ISIS modify and reshape these concepts in both reactionary and revolutionary ways. Even ISIS-core, which aspires to be rooted in early Islamic tradition, ends up innovating and adapting in response to modern realities. These innovations are not just doctrinal but strategic, forcing mainstream Islamic scholars (the ulamā) to engage in deeper reflection on the boundaries of classical concepts.

To conclude, Ramaioli argues that ISIS was motivated by a coherent legal and ideological vision, rooted in a radical and exclusionary interpretation of Islam. This raises important questions about the role of shari'a in modern Islamic governance and the potential for radical movements to exploit similar legal and ideological frameworks. Ramaioli’s analysis invites scholars and policymakers to reconsider the intersection of law, religion and state-building in the Muslim world and to view ISIS as a sophisticated political and legal project.