With regard to governance, policies and law, many Muslims and Muslim countries recognise the possibility that Islam has something important to say about the way society is to be ordered, governed, and regulated.

The extent to which this religious dimension has materialised into actual policies, laws, regulations, rulings, and government decisions has varied immensely over time, according to place, social sphere, and the subject at hand. These developments and outcomes are subject of ongoing research on "Sharia and national law".

LUCIS research on law and governance in Muslim countries covers a wide geographical breadth from West and North Africa to Europe, the Middle East, Iran, and Southeast Asia, notably Indonesia. It is not limited to its religious dimensions in a strict sense. Being at least "Islam-sensitive" it also addresses problems such as limited statehood, authoritarianism, dysfunctional bureaucracy, injustices, normative and legal uncertainty, as well as problems of social and economic development.

In sum, LUCIS research on law and governance looks at how state and non-state actors interact to shape and follow formal and informal rules that regulate the public realm. Our studies look at how these interactions take place in "arenas of governance" such as the government, political society, economic society, civil society, bureaucracy, and the judiciary.

In 2018, this programme consisted of the following events:

• Panel on National Identity, Law and Development in North Africa | convened by Suliman Ibrahim and Jan Michiel Otto | 20 September 2018 | as part of the 3rd Annual Conference of the Law and Development Research Network | 19-21 September 2018.
   
• Seminar on Criminalising and Emancipatory Trends in Family Law in Indonesia and other Muslim Majority Countries | convened by Adriaan Bedner and Mies Grijs | 15-16 November 2018.