Gender and Justice in Family Law Disputes
Women, Mediation, and Religious Arbitration
9781512600353
9781512600360
Distributed for Brandeis University Press
Gender and Justice in Family Law Disputes
Women, Mediation, and Religious Arbitration
Recently, new methods of dispute resolution in matters of family law—such as arbitration, mediation, and conciliation—have created new forms of legal culture that affect minority communities throughout the world. There are now multiple ways of obtaining restitution through nontraditional alternative dispute resolution (ADR) mechanisms. For some, the emergence of ADRs can be understood as part of a broader liberal response to the challenges presented by the settlement of migrant communities in Western liberal democracies. Questions of rights are framed as “multicultural challenges” that give rise to important issues relating to power, authority, agency, and choice. Underpinning these debates are questions about the doctrine and practice of secularism, citizenship, belonging, and identity. Gender and Justice in Family Law Disputes offers insights into how women’s autonomy and personal decision-making capabilities are expressed via multiple formal and nonformal dispute-resolution mechanisms, and as part of their social and legal lived realities. It analyzes the specific ways in which both mediation and religious arbitration take shape in contemporary and comparative family law across jurisdictions. Demarcating lines between contemporary family mediation and new forms of religious arbitration, Bano illuminates the complexities of these processes across multiple national contexts.
304 pages | 6 x 9 | © 2017
Brandeis Series on Gender, Culture, Religion, and Law
Law and Legal Studies: General Legal Studies
Table of Contents
Foreword—Lisa Fishbayn Joffe • Introduction: Women, Mediation, and Religious Arbitration: Thinking Through Gender and Justice in Family Law Disputes—Samia Bano • PART ONE: MEDIATION AND RELIGIOUS ARBITRATION IN THE UNITED KINGDOM • When Is Mediation Mediatory and When Is It Really Adjudicatory? Religion, Norms, and Decision Making—Lisa Webley • Agency, Autonomy, and Rights: Muslim Women and Alternative Dispute Resolution in Britain—Samia Bano • The Growing Alignment of Religion and the Law: What Price Do Women Pay?—Pragna Patel • Family Law and Mediation in Practice in England and Wales—Sarah Beskine • Muslim Mediation and Arbitration: Insights from Community and Legal Practice—Saher Tariq • Do Sharia Councils Meet the Needs of Muslim Women?—Rehana Parveen • British Muslim Women and Barriers to Obtaining a Religious Divorce—Shaista Gohir and Nazmin Akthar-Sheikh • PART TWO: MEDIATION AND RELIGIOUS ARBITRATION IN DIFFERENT NATIONAL CONTEXTS • Religious Arbitration in North America—Wendy Kennett • A Court of Her Own: Autonomy, Gender, and Women’s Courts in India—Gopika Solanki • Islamic Community Processes in Australia: An Introduction—Ghena Krayem and Farrah Ahmed • Faith-Based Family Dispute Resolution in Finnish Mosques: Unfolding Roles and Evolving Practices—Mulki Al-Sharmani, Sanna Mustasaari, and Abdirashid A. Ismail • Together Forever: Are You Kidding Me? Catholicism, Same-Sex Couples, Disputes, and Dispute Resolution in Italy—Maria Federica Moscati • About the Contributors • Index