Adjudicating Family Law in Muslim Courts

This recent addition to the Durham Modern Middle East and Islamic World Series comprises nine excellent scholarly articles on the current role of Islamic Family law in various Muslim countries around the world. The collection begins with Elisa Giunchi’s examination of neo-ijtihad – which appears to be more like free law-making – undertaken by judges lacking the qualifications of true ijtihad; indeed a very troubling development. This is followed by Morgan Clarke’s illuminating study on the mechanics of Family law in Lebanese courts, which remain surprisingly traditional, and then Sylvia Vatuk’s important demonstration of legal pluralism in India where, often, Islamic family law is administered in courts by non-Muslim judges! She also sheds light on the worrying “knowledge gap” between the lower and higher courts, by which we mean that the lower court judges are at times much less informed about the laws than their superiors.