header-logo header-logo

A new path?

15 February 2013 / Craig Rose
Issue: 7548 / Categories: Opinion , Family
printer mail-detail

Craig Rose applauds the sensitive approach taken to settle AI v MT

If you glanced at the front page of The Times for 1 February, with its headline “High Court opens way to Sharia divorces”, you could have been forgiven for thinking that the court had made some important pronouncement on the role of Sharia (Islamic law) in divorce proceedings. The story’s first paragraph would also have led you naturally to that conclusion. “The prospect of divorce cases being settled by Sharia and religious courts”, it said, “has been opened up by a landmark legal decision.” So it would have come as a bit of a jolt to read the start of the next paragraph: “A Jewish couple have had their divorce settlement under Beth Din, rabbinical law, approved by the High Court.” As this indicates, the case (AI v MT [2013] EWHC 100 (Fam)) says nothing whatsoever about Sharia.

This is not to downplay the significance of the case. As the second paragraph of the Times story went on to note, this

If you are not a subscriber, subscribe now to read this content
If you are already a subscriber sign in
...or Register for two weeks' free access to subscriber content

MOVERS & SHAKERS

Birketts—trainee cohort

Birketts—trainee cohort

Firm welcomes new cohort of 29 trainee solicitors for 2025

Keoghs—four appointments

Keoghs—four appointments

Four partner hires expand legal expertise in Scotland and Northern Ireland

Brabners—Ben Lamb

Brabners—Ben Lamb

Real estate team in Yorkshire welcomes new partner

NEWS
Robert Taylor of 360 Law Services warns in this week's NLJ that adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) risks entrenching disadvantage for SME law firms, unless tools are tailored to their needs
From oligarchs to cosmetic clinics, strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs) target journalists, activists and ordinary citizens with intimidating legal tactics. Writing in NLJ this week, Sadie Whittam of Lancaster University explores the weaponisation of litigation to silence critics
Delays and dysfunction continue to mount in the county court, as revealed in a scathing Justice Committee report and under discussion this week by NLJ columnist Professor Dominic Regan of City Law School. Bulk claims—especially from private parking firms—are overwhelming the system, with 8,000 cases filed weekly
Writing in NLJ this week, Thomas Rothwell and Kavish Shah of Falcon Chambers unpack the surprise inclusion of a ban on upwards-only rent reviews in the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill
Charles Pigott of Mills & Reeve charts the turbulent progress of the Employment Rights Bill through the House of Lords, in this week's NLJ
back-to-top-scroll