Gender and Justice in Family Law Disputes: Women, Mediation, and Religious Arbitration

by Samia Bano (Editor)

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781512600360
Publisher:	Brandeis University Press
Publication date:	05/02/2017
Series:	Brandeis Series on Gender, Culture, Religion, and Law
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	334
File size:	486 KB

About the Author

SAMIA BANO is a senior lecturer in law at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.

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

What People are Saying About This

Vrinda Narain

“This collection challenges conventional accounts of Muslim women’s agency and empowerment and offers a nuanced understanding of communities of faith and legal orderings across a diversity of contexts. Its insights are particularly relevant today, as tensions between religious laws and the secular legal order are increasingly fraught and politically contingent. . . . A forceful addition to the scholarly debate.”

Mavis Maclean

“A scholarly, accessible, and vibrant alternative to the pervasive blanket criticism of and hostility toward religious ways of ordering the complexities of family life. . . . We no longer have any excuse for ignoring the complexity and impact of these issues.”

Susan Armstrong

“A contextualized and nuanced insight into the complex relationships between feminism, multiculturalism, citizenship, sovereignty, agency, belonging, and identity that challenges the conventional rendering of these matters. A must-read.”

Editorial Reviews

"Excellent for collections on women and the law. . . . Highly recommended.”
—Choice

From the Publisher