Criminal Constitutional Principles and Islamic Law Impact on Arab Penal Codes

Commonly, penal codes reflect the liability of national state to legislate and implement its national penal codes on all types of crimes that occur within its political boundaries, according to its own social contexts and economic interests, etc. As one of the features of national sovereignty, the penal code still based on the doctrine of “territory” that despite saying it has been developed, but not more than crimes. However, this paper argues that there are some legal aspects are playing decisive roles in the criminal conceptualizations in the penal codes, such as Arab countries penal codes, i.e., the multidimensional factors and aspects of the formations of the penal codes in Arab countries outlined from their historical developments shed the light on applicability of the Islamic Law penal rules from one hand. From the other, the criminal constitutional principles in some Arab constitutions which are universally recognized as main principles of criminal justice are establishing substantial prerequisites for the adoptability of criminal penalty, which have great influence on the application of Islamic Law penal rules even in the officially Islamized countries from the criminal law perspective. Based on that this article tackles not only the issue of criminal conceptualizations in Arab penal codes but also draw the illustrative lines on the applicability of Islamic law penal rules.