Tribunals in the UK
From here, it seems that (at least for the past year) the UK is officially allowing Muslim arbitration tribunals to operate in the UK. Now this isn’t entirely unprecedented, as Jewish (notably in New York) and Christian tribunals have existed for a while now, but this is one of the more publicized acceptance of tribunals in the West in my recollection (in my own country’s case for instance, this issue came up but was eventually denied, along with every other type of religious tribunal).
On the issue of the UK’s implementation, I’m sitting at tentatively positive. As explains in detail as well as what the MAT’s site itself states, these tribunals will require consent of both parties and are only applying to civil matters. Since those wishing arbitration at the moment have the choice of whatever type of arbitration they want to begin with, this simply provides another option to those that wish a more Muslim focused way to resolve their issues. And in addition it seems that if one or more parties object to the ruling, then they can continue their dispute by heading to a traditional UK civil court and the results of the MAT will simply be used as one piece of evidence, while they can present their case once more.
That said, there are still overall issues surrounding religious tribunals into the extent at which both parties have choice in joining them or not. This would be quite the problem in the issue of isolated communities where this may be the only realistic choice available to them, but I’m not entirely convinced this is what is happening in the UK. In the absence of this then, I see this as a positive way to encourage cultural diversity in the UK.
Weakly Discourse 