Recommendation 3: Regulation
The final key recommendation addressed in the volume is on the question of the regulation of religious tribunals. The history of sharia councils has now been widely documented in Britain14 and can be traced to a diverse set of social, political and religious developments in civil society and as part of emergence of a Muslim identity both forged and as part of multicultural practices.
The question of how such bodies should be classified and understood, for example, as groups, associations, institutions or alternative dispute resolution mechanisms, often rests upon the way they may operate and the nature of their relationship to multicultural practices and internal rules of process, institution, whether they rely on a hierarchal relationship and the structures and processes of decision-making and methods of enforcement. Sharia councils operate as unofficial legal bodies specializing in Muslim family law and providing advice and assistance to Muslim communities on these matters. They are neither unified nor represent a single school of thought but instead are made up of different bodies representing the different schools of thought in Islam. Many sharia councils are closely affiliated to mosques, and this reflects developments in Islamic religious practice in Britain. In essence, a sharia council has three key functions: issuing Muslim divorce certificates, reconciling and mediating between parties and producing expert opinion reports on matters of Muslim family law and custom to the Muslim community, solicitors and the courts.The Inquiry further made clear the need to introduce steps to prevent discrimination and this could be achieved by the creation of a body that would set up the process for councils to regulate themselves, That body would design a code of practice for sharia councils to accept and implement. There would, of course, be a one-off cost to the government of establishing this body but subsequently the system would be self-regulatory.
This body would include both sharia council panel members and specialist family law legal expertise. It is to be noted that in speaking with the sharia councils, none were opposed to some form of regulation and some positively welcomed it.In his chapter Islam Uddin draws upon original empirical research including in-depth interviews with British Muslim women, and interviews with professionals ranging from imams and sharia council judges to solicitors and counsellors and suggests reform and regulation of their processes and procedures to provide Muslim women with greater rights and protection.
Similarly, Samia Bano addresses the question of reform within sharia councils in her chapter and the potential for reform. This chapter draws upon the parity governance model to consider its usefulness while addressing issues of reform drawing upon the Inquiry critiques and recommendations.
This volume, in short, raises questions about the lived experience of sharia councils and Muslim legal pluralism in Britain and the role of the state and law in regulating Muslim marriage and divorce. It specifically draws upon some of the key findings and recommendations of the Sharia Inquiry and raises wider questions on the rights of minority religious communities, posing as many questions as it answers.
Notes
1 Salman Sayyid and AbdoolKarim Vakil (eds) (2009) Thinking through Islamophobia: Global Perspectives (London, Hurst Press 2009).
2 Samta Bano (2012) Mutslim Womenand Shaiah Councils; Transcending the Boundaries of Community and Law (Palgrave MacMillan); John Bowen (2016) On British Islam. Religion, Law and Everyday Practice in Sharia Councils (Princeton University Press). Elham Manea (2016) Women ^^d Shari a Law: The Impact of Legal Pluralism in the UK (London, I.B. Tauris).
3 Tariq Modood (2019) Essays on Secularism and Multiculturalism (London, Bowmen and Littlefield).
4 Wtll Kymltcka (2996) Multicultural Citizenship; A Liberal Theory of Minority Rights (Oxford, Clarendon Press).
5https://onelawforall.org.uk/open-letter-to-the-home-secretary/(lastaccessed 5th September 2022).
6 https://inews.co.uk/news/uk/open-letter-muslim-women-government- sharia-councils-28329 (last accessed 5th September 2022).
7 https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/ uploads/attachment_data/file/678478/6.4152_HO_CPFG_Report_ into_Sharia_Law_in_the_UK_WEB.pdf.
8 See A. Pearl and W. F. Menski (1998) Muslim Family Law (Oxford, Sweet and Maxwell).
9 Ibid p15.
10 https://www.lawcom.gov.uk/app/uploads/2015/12/Getting_Married_ scoping_paper.pdf.
11 https://s3-eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/lawcom-prod-storage-11jsxou 24uy7q/uploads/2022/07/A-new-weddings-law-LC-report.pdf.
12 Ibid n8 p14.
13 R. GrHo(,2015) MuslimFarnilies, Polities and tie LaugA-Legal l^n^^^؛^- try in Multicultural Britain (London, Routledge).
14 S. Bano (,2O12a) Shariah Councils and Muslim Women: Transcending the Boundaries of Community and Law (Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan); R. Parveen (2017) Do Sharia Councils Meet the Needs of Muslim Women? In S. Bano ed) Gender ^^d justice in Family Law Disputes, Women, Mediation and Religious Arbitration (,London, Brandes UnIversity Press).
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