Implications of inconsistencies between imposed international law and Sharia law in Saudi Arabia, with special reference to copyright law

This thesis aims to examine the complex relationship between Sharia law and the Saudi Arabian copyright law. It focuses on the implications of the inconsistencies between the law governing intellectual property rights imposed by the TRIPs agreement and Sharia law in Saudi Arabia, specifically as regards copyright law. Original sources from the different schools within Sharia law are analysed in depth to assess their perspectives on conceptions of property, ownership, selling, punishment, grievances, legislation, the role of the judiciary, theft, piracy and how laws should apply to individual countries and obligations as regards international treaties. The compatibility between Sharia approaches to these topics and the TRIPs derived laws protecting copyright in Saudi Arabia is compared to reveal significant inconsistencies.

The thesis argues that unique difficulties arise in applying TRIPs related laws in Saudi Arabia, where Sharia law is theoretically the sole source of law. TRIPs related laws which are almost identical in many areas to those in Saudi Arabia apply in Lebanon and Jordan, where, as the thesis shows, these difficulties do not arise as Sharia law is only one out of several sources of law. Thus the demonstration of the inconsistencies between Sharia and TRIPs imposed laws in Saudi Arabia provides a basis from which to demonstrate and explore the unique difficulties associated with applying piracy enforcement measures in Saudi Arabia which arise from these disparities.

Questionnaires were handed out to different segments of the Saudi Arabian society addressing public perceptions of the adequacy and appropriateness of both Sharia and TRIPs related laws governing copyright in hindering piracy and whether having both laws could incur a negative impact. The findings derived confirm the argument of the thesis that given the inconsistencies between them, the application of both laws leads to undesirable consequences. Some suggestions to address these issues are put forward.