ABSTRACT
To say that Sa‘udi Arabia is undergoing extreme renovation of its vital institutions would be an understatement. With repeated and swift royal decrees after his accession to the throne in 2005, the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, ‘Abdallah bin ‘Abdul ‘Aziz, has proposed a variety of changes and continues to be more creative than many assume. In 2007, for example, the monarch established an independent Supreme Court and provided bylaws for his 2006 Succession edict. Because Sa‘udis professed that the kingdom followed scriptures, going so far as to claim that their constitution was the Holy Qur’an, and because of the 1744 politico-religious alliance between the Al Sa‘ud and the Al Shaykh, the very idea of reforms within the judiciary was problematic. 1 Inasmuch as most socio-political issues were addressed within fundamental religious parameters, it is legitimate to inquire how the ruler's reforms, which were clearly moving the kingdom's political markers, would dramatically affect the lives of Sa‘udi citizens and expatriate workers toiling in the country.
