SHARIAH WITHOUT COURTS: A STUDY OF ISLAMIC JUDICIAL PRACTICES IN ENGLAND

约翰·r·鲍恩博士（圣路易斯华盛顿大学）将对英格兰的伊斯兰教法委员会进行研究。在欧洲和北美，一些穆斯林已经提议建立宗教法庭来调解家庭和其他纠纷。这些建议经常遭到一些人的反对，这些人担心缺乏透明的程序，可能对妇女和儿童采取父权态度，以及将政治伊斯兰引入西方法律的影响。但在英国，穆斯林已经建立了基于伊斯兰规范或sharî ' a的调解纠纷的机构。因此，拥有先进的伊斯兰制度发展的英国，为社会科学讨论和公共政策辩论提供了一个有益的案例。研究人员将主要在三个英国议会进行调查，两个法庭提供调解，一个法庭提供有约束力的仲裁。他将从观察、访谈和对判决的分析中收集数据，重点关注伊斯兰法官如何深思熟虑并做出裁决。将特别注意确定这些法官在其原籍国的先前经验在多大程度上影响了他们在英国的工作，以及法官在多大程度上围绕英国的社会和法律背景作出决定。这项研究是一个比较三个西方国家（美国、法国和英国）伊斯兰审议过程的更大科学项目的一部分。这项研究很重要，因为它将增加关于伊斯兰教以及其他宗教准法律机构在不同背景下如何运作的社会科学知识。研究结果将为有关宗教法庭在西方世俗社会中的作用的公共政策辩论提供所需的信息。研究结果将在计划的公开演讲和出版物中传播。

Dr. John R. Bowen (Washington University in St Louis) will undertake research on England's Shariah Councils. Across Europe and North America, some Muslims have proposed the creation of religious tribunals to mediate in family and other disputes. These proposals often meet with opposition from those concerned about lack of transparent procedures, possible patriarchal attitudes towards women and children, and the effects of introducing political Islam into Western law. But in England, Muslims already have created institutions for mediating disputes that are based on Islamic norms or sharî`a. The English case, with its advanced Islamic institutional development, thus provides an instructive case for both social scientific discussions and public policy debates.The researcher will conduct his investigations primarily at three English councils, two tribunals that offers mediation and one tribunal that offers binding arbitration. He will gather data from observations, interviews, and analyses of decisions, with a focus on how Islamic judges deliberate and reach decisions. Attention will be paid especially to determining the extent to which prior experience of these judges in their countries of origin shapes what they do in England, and to what extent judges craft their decisions around the English social and legal context.The research forms part of a larger scientific project comparing Islamic deliberative processes across three Western countries: the United States, France, and Great Britain. The research is important because it will add to social scientific knowledge of how Islamic, and, by extension, other religious quasi-legal institutions function in varying contexts. Findings will contribute needed information to public policy debates about the role of religious courts in Western secular societies. The results will be disseminated in planned public lectures and in publications.