Islamic criminal law in Aceh sharia courts hear and rule on both civil cases under Islamic law (such as divorce and inheritance) and criminal law under the "qanuns". However, civil cases continue to be the vast majority of cases heard by the court. In 2016 the courts received 10,888 first instance civil cases and 131 appeals, compared to 324 first instance criminal cases and 15 appeals. The sharia courts are part of the broader Indonesian legal system. Their decisions can be appealed to the Supreme Court, and their judges (including the chief judge) are appointed by the Supreme Court. Amnesty International said that they are
Sharia slaves. However, manumission required that the non-Muslim slave first convert to Islam. A non-Muslim slave woman who bore children to her Muslim master became legally free upon her master's death, and her children were presumed to be Muslims like their father, in Africa and elsewhere. Starting with the 20th century, Western legal systems evolved to expand women's rights, but women's rights under Islamic law have remained tied to the Quran, hadiths and their fundamentalist interpretation as sharia by Islamic jurists. Early Islamic law developed a number of legal concepts that anticipated similar such concepts that later appeared in English common