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Family Solicitors

Law Society issues guidelines on Sharia law to solicitors (25 March 2014)

Date: 25/03/2014
Duncan Lewis, Family Solicitors, Law Society issues guidelines on Sharia law to solicitors

The Law Society has drawn up a guide for solicitors on succession rules under Sharia law to allow Muslim families living in the UK to draft legal documents in line with Islamic laws.

The Law Society has said that the purpose of the guide is to ensure good practice among solicitors who offer legal services under Islamic family law.

The move should also mean more solicitors can offer family law services to a wider range of clients from different backgrounds - including wills.

The Law Society guide states:

“No distinction is made between children of different marriages but illegitimate and adopted heirs are not Sharia heirs.”

Islamic traditions mean that male heirs in a family may inherit double the amount a female family member would under the terms of a will.

The Law Society guide takes this into account also:

“The male heirs in most cases receive double the amount inherited by a female heir of the same class. Non-Muslims may not inherit at all and only Muslim marriages are recognised.”

The guidelines also state that a divorced partner is no longer an heir under Sharia law - to inherit, partners must be in a valid Muslim marriage at the time of death.

Under Sharia law, women who are divorced and children born out of marriage or adopted children are not treated equally for the purposes of inheritance.

The Executive director of the National Secular Society Keith Porteous Wood told the Sunday Telegraph that the guidelines may “undermine” the UK’s equality laws.

“The UK has the most comprehensive equality laws in the world yet the Law Society seems determined to undermine this by giving approval to a system that relegates women , non-Muslims and children born out-of-wedlock to second class citizenship.”

Mr Porteous Wood went on to say that laws “determined by parliament” should take precedence over “centuries-old theocratic laws”.

However, Sharia law is already being used in the UK to determine some crimes and family legal issues. There are around 85 Sharia courts operating in Britain already , which are mainly based in mosques and resolve family matters and financial cases.

Women’s rights campaigner Baroness Cox has called the Law Society guidance on Sharia wills and family law “deeply disturbing” and had vowed to raise the issues in parliament, the Daily Mail reports.

Baroness Cox said:

“To have an organisation such as the Law Society promote or encourage a policy which is inherently gender discriminatory in a way which will have very serious implications for women and possibly children is a matter of deep concern.”

Duncan Lewis Family and Children Solicitors

Duncan Lewis is a leading firm of family and children solicitors and can advise on family law under both UK law and Islamic Law, including:

? Ancillary payments
? Child abuse
? Childcare
? Child contact and residence
? Divorce settlements
? Domestic violence
? Inheritance
? Parental child abduction
? Wills.

For expert legal advice on family law and childcare contact Duncan Lewis family and children solicitors on 020 7923 4020.


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