Law as Chameleon: The Question of Incorporation of Muslim Personal Law into the English Law

Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, Vol. 21, No. 2, 2001

12 Pages Posted: 12 Mar 2011

Date Written: 2001

Abstract

This paper endeavours to analyse the existence of Muslim family laws and demands of application of Muslim personal law. As is known, in England, some Muslim groups have been campaigning to establish a Muslim personal law system in order to regulate autonomously their personal and family related issues according to Muslim law. The feasibility and probability of such a project will be discussed by making references to the socio-legal scholarship and the public medium. The relevant experience of the Pakistani personal law system will also be looked at in order to shed some more light on the discussion of whether having a personal law system ultimately solves the problems arising from the socio-legal reality of Muslim legal pluralism. In the end, we shall highlight the partial practical solution put into practice by the Muslim community exempliŽ ed in the case of the Islamic Shari’a Council (ISC) of UK, realising that the state is reluctant to recognise and respond to the socio-legal reality.

Keywords: Britain, Islamic law, legal pluralism, hybrid laws, Muslims, unofficial laws

JEL Classification: Z, O19

Suggested Citation

Yilmaz, Ihsan, Law as Chameleon: The Question of Incorporation of Muslim Personal Law into the English Law (2001). Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, Vol. 21, No. 2, 2001, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1782170 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1782170

Ihsan Yilmaz (Contact Author)

Deakin University ( email )

75 Pigdons Road
Victoria, Victoria 3216
Australia

HOME PAGE: http://www.deakin.edu.au/about-deakin/people/ihsan-yilmaz

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