>>>>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

If there were any hope at all that men and women were going to be treated as equals in Sharia or Beth Din or whatever other religion decided to come to the table, I might agree with it having some value. As it is, there is no semblance of equality, so afaic, it's a terrible idea for any government to officially condone such activity.