2 hours 1 min ago
Decisions reached according to Islamic law can be accepted by English family courts, it has emerged.
Although sharia law officially has no jurisdiction in England, a ruling passed on a separating couple by a sharia council can be submitted to a formal family court.
There, the principles of the sharia judgment, embodied in a consent order, may be rubber-stamped by a judge.
The situation became clear when Justice minister Bridget Prentice told MPs: "If, in a family dispute dealing with money or children, the parties to a judgment in a sharia council wish to have this recognised by English authorities, they are at liberty to draft a consent order embodying the terms of the agreement and submit it to an English court.
"This allows English judges to scrutinise it to ensure that it complies with English legal tenets."
A consent order can deal with the division of money, property, savings and child maintenance, according to the compactlaw.co.
The court will "rubber-stamp" the order if it decides the agreement reached is fair, and the order will then act as a contract between the couple.
If the court is not happy with the consent order it may ask for more information or for the couple to attend a hearing.
In the written answer to MPs, Ms Prentice stressed: "Any order in a family case is made or approved by a family judge applying English family law."
But Robert Whelan, of the Civitas think tank, told the Daily Mail: "Women who live in some communities may have no option but to go to the sharia court. The case is then rubber-stamped by a family court without any of us knowing how the decision was reached."
http://uk.news.
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Arif
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