Should English law be giving greater recognition to Islamic law? The question is widely discussed; but we must tread with caution. This is an area of particular importance and sensitivity. The matter is not well understood in the public at large and the printed media in particular, as the fall-out from the Archbishop of Canterbury’s lecture on the subject bears witness. From our own perspectives, respectively as a former family judge and a scholar of law and religion, we reflect on the relationship between English family law and families who live in the UK and are British citizens, but who have their own separate culture, family traditions and religious system, which may have an impact upon their family disputes.

English family law

English family law is entirely based upon statute law and the decisions of judges interpreting those statutes. Marriage and divorce remain matters exclusively for the civil law of this country. (Whilst the Church of England is empowered to solemnise matrimony, and legally obliged to do so in the case of parishioners, its ministers act as civil registrars on behalf of the state for these purposes.) The jurisdiction of the civil courts on ancillary matters within divorce proceedings, such as the upbringing of children, cannot be ousted.