Ron Shaham, Ph.D. (1992) in Islamic Studies, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, is an associate professor at the Department of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies at the Hebrew University. He is author of Family and the Courts in Modern Egypt (1997), The Expert Witness in Islamic Courts: Medicine and Crafts in the Service of Law (2010) and editor of Law, Custom and Statute in the Muslim World: Studies in Honor of Aharon Layish (2007). He has published extensively on the shari`a courts and qadis in modern Egypt, on Egyptian family law reforms, and on the legal status of non-Muslims in modern Islamic societies. Currently he studies the modern discourse on the renewal of Islamic law and its adaptation to current needs.