>>>FWIW, my understanding of not just the Bet Din, but Jewish law in general, is that local law prevails. So a Beth Din can't make a ruling that's in violation of the prevailing law of the country where the Bet Din operates.
>>
>>That begs the question as to whether Sharia law operates under the same principle or not...
>
>It doesn't matter. Whoever made the loophole to give one religious court's decisions a legal footing, has opened it for every other such court.

I think you are overreacting to religious connotations of the thing. Arbitration by specialists in the field is possible around here, and sometimes I wonder if justice might not be served better by including a more solid influence of the dice gods (perhaps mitigated by the number of throws gvien to each side<g>).

The law itself is not really error free in its axioms, so recognizing an official crapshoot factor might be a better deterrent than a couple of probations or motivate more people to a settlement (which is the thing the curt is strinving for as well, they just have the power to make it stick).

regards

thomas