Islamic Law and Transitional Justice: An Original Framework for Post-Conflict Accountability in North East Nigeria

Transitional justice mechanisms in post-conflict societies encompass truth-telling, accountability, reparations, and institutional reform, and Islamic law contains normative resources across all four dimensions that have not been systematically mobilised in the scholarly or policy literature on post-conflict accountability in North East Nigeria. This study develops an original Islamic law framework for transitional justice applicable to the North East Nigeria conflict accountability context. A theoretical and empirical methodology is applied across three phases. Phase one constructs the theoretical framework through systematic integration of classical Islamic jurisprudence on Qisas, Afw (pardon), Sulh (reconciliation), Diya (reparation), and Islah (social restoration) with contemporary transitional justice theory from Ruti Teitel, Pablo de Greiff, and the UN Secretary-General's transitional justice framework. Phase two empirically documents Islamic law perspectives on accountability, pardon, and reconciliation through structured interviews with thirty Islamic scholars and conflict-affected community representatives across Borno, Yobe, and Adamawa States, triangulated with sixty community focus groups. Phase three refines the theoretical framework against the empirical findings and generates original institutional design proposals. The original contribution is a Northern Nigerian Islamic Transitional Justice Framework specifying four programme pillars: truth-telling through Shahada institutions, accountability through hybrid Qisas-Ta'zir tribunals, reparations through Bait al-Mal (public treasury) Diya programmes, and institutional reform through Tawba-based disarmament and reintegration processes. Keywords: transitional justice, Islamic law, North East Nigeria, post-conflict accountability, Qisas.