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" Faith-Based Arbitration in Canada: "
Maryam F. Razavy
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Latin Dissertation
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| Language of Document
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English
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| Record Number
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1103956
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| Doc. No
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TLpq857922698
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| Main Entry
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Maryam F. Razavy
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| Title & Author
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Faith-Based Arbitration in Canada:\ Maryam F. Razavy
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| College
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University of Alberta (Canada)
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| Date
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2010
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| student score
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2010
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| Degree
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Ph.D.
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| Page No
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339
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| Abstract
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For years, particular Jewish and Christian groups in Ontario had had the option of opting out of the secular court system with respect to uncomplicated cases of divorce, child custody, and inheritance rights (among other things), instead allowing clerical courts to settle the matters (according to the tenets of their respective religious laws) with decisions that the province recognized as binding. In October of 2003, members of a group called the Islamic Institute of Justice (IICJ) publicly announced that they intended to open a business that would offer Muslims in Canada arbitration of family law matters. The announcement immediately drew fierce opposition both from within the Muslim community and from non-Muslim Canadians alike, quickly thrusting the little known worlds of faith-based arbitration and Sharia law front and center of Canadian public debates. This issue clearly represents one of the most dramatic clashes between religion and state to have occurred in this country in recent years. Through several key areas of discussion, this dissertation broadly explores this interplay between religious rights and individual civil rights (principally those aimed at gender equality), particularly as they relate to processes of legal pluralism, brought about in part by forces of globalization. Regarding the issue of Sharia arbitration courts, this project argues two key points. First, it argues that Canada, through its various policies and laws, has created a template that enables Islamic Sharia courts to exist. Second, it argues that, despite the controversial nature of Islamic law, the Ontario government fell short regarding its responsibility to take a balanced approach on competing rights between religious freedom and legal justice in banning faith-based arbitration. In an effort to protect women's rights, the Ontario government's ban on all faith-based arbitration essentially ignores its continued, unregulated operation and disregards the significant weight that its decisions carry within segments of the Canadian Muslim community. A third alternative would introduce limited Islamic legal discourse into the Canadian legal framework (under a revised Arbitration Act), resulting in a more formalized, reformed, and transparent system of Canadian Sharia law.
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| Subject
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Faith-based arbitration
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Ontario
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Philosophy, religion and theology
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Religious rights
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Sharia
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Social sciences
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