Six scholars and practitioners of Islamic family law and related subjects weigh in on the recent high-profile case of Islamic divorce in the UK, Akhter v. Khan issued by the High Court of Justice of England and Wales.
At the tail end of last month, a UK court decided a case of family law that has reverberated in legal-academic and media circles alike: what is the status of Islamic law in UK courts? Should state courts recognize Islamic marriages that have not been registered? Does religious law stand in the place of state law? Mr. Justice William touched on these questions in Akhter v. Khan (July 2018), his decision issued from the High Court of Justice of England and Wales. We provide a summary of the lengthy case in the SHARIAsource Case Brief — outlining the facts and presenting excerpts from the original case, which may be found here. We then rounded up six scholars of Islamic family law and related areas to weigh in and debate the implications of the case. Here are their views.
Re-opening the Debate on the Law of Marriage as a Whole
By Ralph Grillo, Emeritus Professor of Social Anthropology, University of Sussex
Islamic Marriage and English Divorce – a new Decision from the English High Court
By Ralf Michaels, Professor of Law, Duke Law School
Engaging with the Terms of the Marriage Act of 1949
By Rebecca Probert, Professor of Law, University of Exeter Law School
UK Courts recognize the Islamic law equivalent of a “semblance of marriage”
By Intisar A. Rabb, Professor of Law, Harvard Law School
The Move Toward Cohabitation: Islamic Marriage in England and Wales
By Hadeer Soliman, Attorney, and Vishal Vora, Research Fellow, Max Planck Institute
The Need for an Efficient Mechanism to Marry
By Vishal Vora, Research Fellow, Max Planck Institute