INTRODUCTION
Situated on the Asia-Pacific rim, the two island states of Singapore and Australia are each home to approximately half a million Muslims. In both nations there is a significant and recognisable Muslim minority: 3 per cent in Australia and 15 per cent in Singapore.
In both, Islam is the religion with the third largest number of faith adherents after Christianity and Buddhism, with Hinduism fourth. Australia and Singapore also have a large number of citizens who have no religious affiliation, around 20 per cent. Both are secular states, with neither Constitution proclaiming a state religion. Each nation is proud of its multi-ethnic, multi-religious and multicultural polity, and both triumph in the respective ways by which they have maintained overall national cohesion. Singapore’s Chief Justice Chan Sek Keong describes multiculturalism as Singapore’s ‘way to a harmonious society’.[9] It creates Singapore’s identity and builds a cohesive society from the different racial communities through belief in shared values and then ‘sharing those common values in their daily lives’.[10] Former Prime Minister Gillard described Australia’s multiculturalism as more than the ability to maintain diverse backgrounds and cultures, saying that it acts as a ‘meeting place of rights and responsibilities’ including ‘non-negotiable respect for our foundational values of democracy and the rule of law’.[11]Both share a common legal heritage. Singapore and Australia were colonised by Britain two centuries ago, thereby becoming inheritors of the common law legal system with its attending institutions, methodology and principles. Yet, despite this common legal heritage and a government endorsed policy of multiculturalism, only Singapore has adopted and endorsed a form of formal legal pluralism; today more aptly described as legal dualism.
Muslim citizens in Singapore are legally required to apply Shari’ah personal status laws and to have family and inheritance matters arising from those laws resolved in a separate Shari’ah Court system. The Shari’ah Court operates exclusively for Singapore’s Muslim population and is separately administered and fully government funded. Singapore’s model of legal dualism is well accepted by the nation’s Muslim and non-Muslim communities. The model is promoted as a workable, ongoing and respectful manifestation of legal coexistence based on ‘the mutual respect the Muslim and the non-Muslim community have for each other’.[12] In Australia, a different approach was taken, known as ‘one law for all’. There are neither separate courts nor Islamic personal status laws enacted for or applied to Muslim Australians, nor for any other religious or ethnic group. In the Australian ‘one law for all’ approach, Muslims are free to adhere to Islamic law in their personal lives, but it always remains a matter of self-choice taken in accordance with one’s religious conviction and personal conscience. Muslims’ commitment to Islamic law is evident in their use of a wide array of informal forms of Islamic arbitration and dispute resolution to resolve any family or community matters that arise. This is accepted by Australian law provided the outcome is not in conflict with, or contrary to, it.This chapter will provide a theoretical and practical analysis of these two distinctive approaches: the legal dualism of Singapore and the legal monism in Australia. The first section will look at the historical setting in which these approaches arose during the time of British colonisation to explain why, right from inception, a different course was chartered in each country and how that direction was affirmed at independence. The second section will consider the practical aspects of how both systems operate today though the two key life events of marriage and divorce, and the consequences for Muslims and non-Muslims in both instances. Lastly, there will be comparative analysis of philosophical basis for both approaches by highlighting the ways in which the two systems diverge today.
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More on the topic INTRODUCTION:
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- Introduction
- Introduction
- Introduction
- Theory and Practice
- Introduction
- III Timetable of important events and laws
- Hare C., Neo D. (eds.). Trade Finance: Technology, Innovation and Documentary Credit. Oxford University Press,2021. — 417 p., 2021
- AVIAN CHOLERA
- Easteal Patricia (ed.). Justice Connections. Cambridge Scholars Publishing,2014. — 322 p., 2014