THE TELEGRAPH: Bridget Prentice, the Justice Minister, has put the legitimacy of Sharia rulings in the limelight again with suggestions that mediation on family disputes could go before English judges
Debate on the status of Sharia in the UK has been stoked by Bridget Prentice, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Ministry of Justice, in comments last week that “Sharia has no jurisdiction in England and Wales and there is no intention to change this position”.
For good measure she added: “we do not accommodate any other religious legal system in this country’s laws”. And, as lawyers would say, for the further avoidance of doubt she threw in: “religious courts are always subservient to the established family courts of England and Wales”.
But her comments, in a parliamentary answer to Michael Penning, Shadow Minister for Health, brought criticism that ministers have now given the seal of approval to Sharia “courts”, or councils, in Britain.
The reason? The Justice Minister went on to say that in any family dispute dealing with money or children, if the parties to a judgment by a Sharia council want it recognised by the English authorities, they are free to draft a consent order embodying the terms of the agreement and submit it to an English court. This, she said, allows English judges to scrutinise it to ensure that it complies with English legal tenets.
That “add-on” does seem to raise the spectre of legitimising Sharia rulings. Religious courts already are widely used to settle personal disputes — any member of a religious community can use such a court and abide by its decision.
Decisions are subject to national law and can only be enforced when the religious court acts as an arbitrator under the Arbitration Act 1996 , the minister said — and then only when a decision is not contrary to public policy or English law. >>> Frances Gibb, Legal Editor | October 28, 2008
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