UK and sharia law

According to an article in the London Times (thanks to Jeff), British courts are in fact already implementing decisions of British sharia courts, including ones that give male children twice the inheritance of female children, and have yet to require anything more than anger management classes and mentoring for domestic violence cases. The courts do so in accordance with their function of implementing the results of arbitration procedures.

UK commentator Melanie Phillips writes that, although the Times represents these procedures as novel, UK courts have been implementing the decisions of sharia courts for some time. They are, however, only supposed to enforce rulings that fall within British law. Certainly the case cited above regarding inheritance rights should not qualify. Last July Britain's chief justice, Lord Phillips, raised a ruckus when he spoke in favor of partial application of sharia law. What exactly, one wonders, did he mean?

Sharia courts were started up in 2007, and now operate in London, Birmingham, Bradford and Manchester, with two more planned for Glasgow and Edinburgh.