Introduction

This chapter argues that family arbitration represents a promising legal solution for relationship breakdown in religious communities such as the Muslim community. This is particularly so in light of two recent developments which have opened up new avenues in the field of family arbitration, namely the official introduction of a Family Arbitration Scheme in England and Wales, and the novel precedent established in the 2013 case of AI v MT. Following an analysis of these two developments, this chapter highlights the case of the Muslim Arbitration Tribunal as an arguably successful model which indicates the feasibility and potential of family arbitration in disputes involving religious marriages.

Religious marriages may or may not be legally recognized, depending on the extent to which they have also engaged with the requirements of the civil law (see Probert, Vora, Parveen, this volume). If they are not recognized, alternative methods of dispute resolution, such as family arbitration, become particularly pertinent in regulating relationship breakdown because they may represent the only legal avenue for dispute resolution in such cases. On the other hand, even if religious marriages are legally recognized, a civil court is unable to engage with the religious sensitivities involved on the breakdown of such marriages in the same way that an alternative dispute resolution mechanism, such as family arbitration, has the capacity to do, as this chapter will attempt to illustrate.

The Arbitration Act 1996

The Arbitration Act 1996 is the main piece of legislation regulating arbitration in England and Wales. It was principally created in order to provide the commercial community with an adequate means of privately resolving their disputes (Hunter, 1987: 195). In this regard the Act sought to reconcile two conflicting interests in arbitration as an alternative method of dispute resolution (Redfern, 1986; Chukwumerije, 1999). The first was the interest of private parties in a swift, inexpensive and decisive resolution to their disputes outside of court. The second was the interest of the legal system in ensuring that the fairness, impartiality and integrity of the process were fully secured.

Section 1 of the Act explicitly expresses the legislation's intent to reconcile such interests.