Dilemmas of Civil Tribunals in Formulating Their Positions Towards Religious Tribunals – The Case of Custody of Muslim Children

Abstract

The paper deals with dilemmas of civil-secular tribunals when formulating a position towards decisions of religious tribunals with regard to custody of children. The paper examines the Israeli Supreme Court's approach towards rulings of the Sharia courts and rabbinical courts. It further compares it to similar tensions in the United States, Canada and Britain. While civil tribunals are apparently totally committed to civil non-religious law, religious tribunals, though committed to act in accordance with the fundamental principles of the state's civil law, are also obliged to act according to religious law. The paper argues that the actual scope of the above tension is more limited than it appears at first glance. There is an attempt to reconcile the need to protect women and children on the one hand with freedom of religion, multiculturalism and rights of ethnic minorities and immigrants, on the other.

Keywords: Child and minor Custody, Child and minor Guardianship, Islam, Muslim, Sharia, Women Rights, Feminism, Equality, Gender Discrimination, Save our State Laws, Law and Religion, Law and Society, Law and Culture, Jewish Law, Israel, Circumcision, Religious Tribunals, Religious Rights, Child Education, Im

JEL Classification: K36, K49