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

约翰·R·鲍恩博士(位于圣路易斯的华盛顿大学)将对英国的伊斯兰教法委员会进行研究。在整个欧洲和北美，一些穆斯林提议设立宗教法庭，以调解家庭和其他纠纷。这些建议经常遭到那些担心缺乏透明程序、可能对妇女和儿童采取家长制态度以及将政治伊斯兰教引入西方法律的影响的人的反对。但在英格兰，穆斯林已经建立了调解基于伊斯兰规范或沙鲁阿的争端的机构。英国的案例具有先进的伊斯兰制度发展，因此为社会科学讨论和公共政策辩论提供了一个有启发性的案例。研究人员将主要在英国的三个议会、两个提供调解的法庭和一个提供有约束力的仲裁的法庭进行调查。他将从观察、采访和对裁决的分析中收集数据，重点关注伊斯兰法官如何审议和达成裁决。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他们在英国的工作，以及法官在多大程度上根据英国的社会和法律背景做出决定。这项研究是一个更大的科学项目的一部分，该项目比较了三个西方国家：美国、法国和英国的伊斯兰审议过程。这项研究很重要，因为它将增加关于伊斯兰以及其他宗教准法律机构如何在不同背景下发挥作用的社会科学知识。调查结果将有助于就宗教法庭在西方世俗社会中的作用进行公共政策辩论。结果将在计划中的公开讲座和出版物中传播。

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.