Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-ndw9j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-09T09:43:19.273Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Transnational Hindu law adoptions: recognition and treatment in Britain*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 July 2009

Prakash Shah
Prakash Shah*
Affiliation:
Department of Law, Queen Mary, University of London
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article examines how the adoption of children under Hindu law in India is regarded by British private international law and immigration law. Through an analysis of case-law, it focuses particularly on how British judges regard the legitimacy of exclusion by the British immigration control system of children who have been adopted under a ‘foreign’ legal system which essentially permits private adoption arrangements. Examining the background to the regime of Indian Hindu law adoptions (which applies to Sikhs as well as Hindus), and the private international law and immigration rules which apply to such adoptees in the UK, the article finds some evidence in the judicial decisions of a more activist, human-rights-based, plurality-conscious position being taken. However, tracking the case-law further, the article concludes that such activism has not been followed through in more recent decisions leaving the conflictual position between transnational adopters and British legal systems largely unresolved.

Type
Research Article
Information
International Journal of Law in Context , Volume 5 , Issue 2 , June 2009 , pp. 107 - 130
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Agnes, Flavia (1999) Law and Gender Inequality. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Apparao, Hansa (1997) ‘International Adoption of Children: The Indian Scene’, International Journal of Behavioural Development 20: 3–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Balagangadhara, S. N. (2005) ‘The Heathen in his Blindness. . .’: Asia, the West, and the Dynamic of Religion, 2nd rev. ed. New Delhi: Manohar.Google Scholar
Ballard, Roger (2009) ‘Universal Human Rights in Contexts of Ethnic Plurality: A Vehicle for Liberation or a Weapon of War?’ in Grillo, Ralph, Ballard, Roger, Ferrari, Alessandro, MaussenAndré J. Hoekema, Marcel André J. Hoekema, Marcel and Shah, Prakash (eds) Legal Practice and Cultural Diversity. Aldershot: Ashgate, 299–330.Google Scholar
Castles, Stephen (2007) ‘Migration and Social Transformation’. LSE Migration Studies Unit Working Papers, No. 2008/01, www.lse.ac.uk/collections/MSU/papers/Castles-07.pdf [last accessed 22 November 2008].Google Scholar
Charney, Mitchell A. (1985) ‘The Rebirth of Private Adoptions’, ABA Journal 71: 52–55.Google Scholar
Chiba, Masaji (1998) ‘Other Phases of Legal Pluralism in the Contemporary World’, Ratio Juris 11: 228–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Department of health, welsh office and scottish office (1992) Interdepartmental Review of Adoption Law. Discussion Paper 4: Inter-country Adoption, January 1992.Google Scholar
Derrett, J. D. M. (1963) Introduction to Modern Hindu Law. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Derrett, J. D. M. (1977) Essays in Classical and Modern Hindu Law, vol. 3. Leiden: Brill.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Desai, S. A. (2007) Mulla Principles of Hindu Law, 20th ed. New Delhi: LexisNexis.Google Scholar
Diwan, Paras and Diwan, Peeyushi (2007) Modern Hindu Law. 18th ed. Fairidabad: Allahabad Law Agency.Google Scholar
Eekelaar, John (2006) Family Law and Personal Life. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Ehrlich, Eugen (1917) ‘Judicial Freedom of Decision: Its Principles and Objects’ in Science of Legal Method (Modern Legal Philosophy Series, vol. 9). Boston: Boston Book Company, 47–84.Google Scholar
Francavilla, Domenico (2006) The Roots of Hindu Jurisprudence: The Sources of Mīmāmsā and Dharmaśāstra. Torino: Corpus Iuris Sanscritum.Google Scholar
Galanter, Marc (1981) ‘Justice in Many Rooms: Courts, Private Ordering and Indigenous Law’, Journal of Legal Pluralism and Unofficial Law 19: 1–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Glenn, H. Patrick (2003) ‘The Nationalist Heritage’ in Legrand, Pierre and Munday, Roderick (eds) Comparative Legal Studies: Traditions and Transitions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 76–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gold, Michael (1994) ‘Adoption as a Jewish option’, in Bayme, Steven and Rosen, Gladys (eds) The Jewish Family and Jewish Continuity. Jersey City, NJ: KTAV Publishing House, 173–79.Google Scholar
Gupte, S. V. (1970) Hindu Law of Adoption, Maintenance, Minority and Guardianship. Bombay: N. M. Tripathi Private Ltd.Google Scholar
Hoekema, Andre and Van rossum, Wibo (2006) ‘Empirical Conflict Rules in Dutch Legal Cases of Cultural Diversity.’ Paper presented at the conference on The Response of State Law to the Expression of Cultural Diversity, Fondation Francqui-Stichting, Brussels, 28 September–1 October 2006.Google Scholar
Lilani, Kala (1995) ‘Adoption of Children from India’ in Jaffe, Eliezer D. (ed.) Intercountry Adoptions: Laws and Perspectives of Sending Countries. Dordrecht: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 23–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Macdonald, Ian A. and Webber, Frances (eds) (2005) Immigration Law and Practice in the United Kingdom, 6th ed. London: LexisNexis Butterworths.Google Scholar
Manooja, Dalip Chand (1993) Adoption Law and Practice. New Delhi: Deep and Deep Publications.Google Scholar
Mckee, Richard (2005) ‘Children’ in Jackson, David and Warr, George (eds) Immigration: Law and Practice. London: Sweet & Maxwell.Google Scholar
Menski, Werner (2001) Modern Indian Family Law. Richmond: Curzon.Google Scholar
Menski, Werner (2003) Hindu Law: Beyond Tradition and Modernity. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Menski, Werner (2006) Comparative Law in a Global Context: The Legal Systems of Asia and Africa, 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Menski, Werner (2007) ‘Dodgy Asians or Dodgy Laws? The Story of H’, Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Law 21: 284–94.Google Scholar
Menski, Werner (2008) ‘Law, Religion and Culture in Multicultural Britain’ in Mehdi, Rubya, Woodman, Gordon R., Sand, Erik Reeberg and Petersen, Hanne (eds) Religion and Law in Multicultural Societies. Copenhagen: DJØF Publishing, 43–62.Google Scholar
Misra, Ranganath (2005) Mayne’s Hindu Law and Usage, 15th ed. New Delhi: Bharat Law House.Google Scholar
Mortimore, Claudia (1994) Immigration and Adoption. Stoke-on-Trent: Trentham Books.Google Scholar
Munby, James (2005) ‘Families Old and New – The Family and Article 8’, Child and Family Law Quarterly 17: 487–509.Google Scholar
Murphy, John (2005) International Dimensions in Family Law. Manchester: Manchester University Press.Google Scholar
O’halloran, Kerry (1992) Adoption Law and Practice. Dublin: Butterworths.Google Scholar
O’halloran, Kerry (2006) The Politics of Adoption: International Perspectives on Law, Policy & Practice. Dordrecht/London: Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Phillips, N. (2008) ‘Equality Before the Law.’ Speech by Lord Nicholas Phillips, Lord Chief Justice, East London Muslim Centre, 3 July 2008, innertemplelibrary.wordpress.com/2008/07/04/equality-before-the-law-speech-by-lord-phillips-of-worth-matravers/ [last accessed 22 November 2008].Google Scholar
Pollack, DanielBleich, MosheReid Jr, Charles J. and Fadel, Mohammad H. (2004) ‘Classical Religious Perspectives of Adoption Law’, Notre Dame Law Review 79(2): 101–158.Google Scholar
Pollock, Sir Frederick and Maitland, Frederic William (1923) The History of English Law, vol. II, 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Ray, Bharati (2008) ‘Lakshmi Bai [Lakshmibai], Rani of Jhansi (1827/1828–1858), Warrior Queen in India’ in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford: Oxford University Press. www.oxforddnb.com/public/dnb/94944.html [last accessed 22 November 2008].Google Scholar
Riles, Annelise (2008) ‘Cultural Conflicts’, Law and Contemporary Problems 71(3): 273–308.Google Scholar
Roby, Jini L. (2004) ‘Understanding Sending Country’s Traditions and Policies in International Adoptions: Avoiding Legal and Cultural Pitfalls’, Journal of Law and Family Studies 6: 303–322.Google Scholar
Sachdeva, Sanjiv (1993) The Primary Purpose Rule in British Immigration Law. Stoke-on-Trent: Trentham Books and SOAS.Google Scholar
Saksena, K. S. (1958) The Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act, 1956. Lucknow: Eastern Book Company.Google Scholar
Seddon, Duran (ed) (2006) Immigration, Nationality & Refugee Law Handbook. London: JCWI.Google Scholar
Shachar, A. (2001) Multicultural Jurisdictions: Cultural Differences and Women's Rights. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sharma, Sashi S. (2005) Imagined Manuvad: The Dharmaśāstrars and Their Interpreters. New Delhi: Rupa and Co.Google Scholar
Whitehouse, Bruce (2009) ‘Transnational Childrearing and the Preservation of Transnational Identity in Brazzaville, Congo’, Global Networks 9(1): 82–99.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Williams, Rowan (2008) Archbishop’s Lecture – Civil and Religious Law in England: A Religious Perspective, 7 February 2008. Canterbury: www.archbishopofcanterbury.org/1575 [last accessed 22 November 2008].Google Scholar