>>>This is the sort of thing that the rabble rousing right wing press seizes on without reading the detail. Whats actually being talked about is putting the sharia court on the same footing for the Muslim community as the Beth Din for the Jewish community. Uk law would still take precedence.
>>>
>>>http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7233040.stm
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>>IMO both are wrong - no other court should have any formal standing but the country's own legal system. The parties may chose to settle out of court, but only after being in the court first.
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>>But then, it's just another patch on the multicolored mix of legal systems and all kinds of courts that's already in place.
>
>I don't think all case need to end up in court. Its nice for the lawyers but the Beth Din, Sharia Courts and other conciliation services can be a good thing. Why end up at those services after paying a fortune in legal costs.

I'm with Dragan on this one. In too many of those systems, including both Sharia and Beth Din, there is far too much scope for brainwashing or even, in fact, coercion. People are brought up in a given system and don't necessarily realise that it might not be operating in their best interest. Women, for example, in the Sharia system (Beth Din too, for that matter) are not 1st class citizens, and the system is stacked against them. The problem is that they don't fully understand, due to a lifetime of brainwashing, that things don't have to be that way. With only one system, at least they have a better chance of finding out.