This paper introduces this Special Number. The work of the Project Group Legal Pluralism at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Halle aims to continue the rapid expansion of recent decades of studies of legal pluralism. The recently much discussed phenomenon of globalisation has provoked a wide variety of local responses. Encounters are occurring between state laws, transnational laws, customary laws and religious laws, all of which are liable as a result to be transformed by processes of adaptation, appropriation and vulgarisation. This may lead to increasing pluralisation of laws, but can also in some cases produce homogenisation, or de-pluralisation.The notion of ‘law’ should not be limited to state, international and transnational law, but should be used to refer to all those objectified cognitive and normative conceptions for which validity for a certain social formation is authoritatively asserted. Law becomes manifest in many forms, and is comprised of a variety of social ph...

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The dynamics of change and continuity in plural legal orders

Drawing on recent cross-national surveys of the Turkish second generation, we test hypotheses of secularization and of religious vitality for Muslim minorities in Europe. Secularization predicts an inverse relationship between structural integration and religiosity, such that the Turkish second generation would be less religious with higher levels of educational attainment and intermarriage. The religious vitality hypothesis predicts the maintenance of religion in the second generation, highlighting the role of religious socialization within immigrant families and communities. Taking a comparative approach, these hypotheses are tested in the context of different national approaches to the institutionalization of Islam as a minority religion in four European capital cities: Amsterdam, Berlin, Brussels and Stockholm. Across contexts, religious socialization strongly predicts second-generation religiosity, in line with religious vitality. The secularization hypothesis finds support only among the se...

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Integration and religiosity among the Turkish second generation in Europe: a comparative analysis across four capital cities

Immigrant cultures are routinely posed as threats to national culture. Particular understandings of immigrant and national cultures underlie cultural politics. Culturalism—conceiving cultures as reified, static, and homogeneous across bounded groups—imbues these understandings. Representations of immigrant and national culture are mutually constituted in policies, state institutions, the media, and everyday perceptions surrounding key categories such as borders, illegality, and the law. Furthermore, coupled with a popular or commonsense structural-functionalism that sees all cultural values and practices as inherently interlinked, many modes of cultural politics are contextually stimulated by anxieties about cultural loss. At critical junctures, certain representations gain powerful roles in cultural politics through synecdoche, when specific symbols stand for an integrated set of cultural attributes. Examples include Muslim head scarves in France and the “ground zero mosque” in the United States. Anthrop...

The Cultural Politics of Nation and Migration

La pluralité familiale en droit interne à l'épreuve de la diversité des institutions familiales étrangères

This book combines an examination of women's rights in Muslim family law in Arab states from the Gulf to North Africa with discussions of the public debates surrounding the issues that are raised in processes of codification and amenement. This study considers new laws along with older statutes to comment on patterns and dynamics of change both in the texts of the laws and in the processes by which they are drafted and issued. It draws on original legal texts as well as on extensive secondary literature for an insight into practice; interventions by women's rights organisations and other parties are drawn on to identify areas of the laws that remain contested. The discussions are set in the contemporary global context that internationalises the domestic and regional discussions.

https://scholarlypublications.universiteitleiden.nl/access/item%3A2732739/view

Women and Muslim Family Laws in Arab States

Table of ContentsI. Introduction 1387II. The New Moroccan Family Code: A Reform That Is Faithful to Islamic Tradition 1387A. Reforms Concerning the Status of Women 13901. Marriage 13902. The Dissolution of Marriage 1391B. Reforms Concerning the Status of the Child 13931. Filiation 13942. Legal Representation and Custody 1396III. Marriage and Its Dissolution in Moroccan Law: What Are the Implications for Moroccans Residing in Europe? 1398A. The New Moudawana: A Code Concerned About the Family Life of Moroccan Nationals Residing Abroad.........13981. (Civil) Marriage of Moroccan Nationals Residing Abroad (Articles 14 and 15) 13992. Conditions Regarding the Form of Marriage (Articles 16 and 17) 14023. Administrative Formalities and Procedures Prior to Marriage (Articles 65 and 69) 14044. Recognition of Divorce Decrees Issued by Foreign Jurisdictions (Article 128) 1407B. The Emancipatory Potential of the New Moudawana: Combining Moroccan Domestic Law and Private International Law 14091. The Double Celebration of Marriage 14092. The Modelization of the Effects of Marriage and Its Dissolution 1410IV. Conclusion 1414I. IntroductionThe analysis that follows is subdivided into two parts: Part II summarizes, as succinctly as possible, the main lines of the new Moroccan Family Code,1 while at the same time expressing some reservations about its claim to be innovative. Part III discusses the impact-real or potential-of the new Moudawana on the lives of families where one or more members reside abroad. I seek to bring the most constructive analysis possible of the various options available to Moroccans residing abroad (MRA), either in applying Moroccan domestic law or by the techniques of private international law, in order to, at best, balance the rights and obligations of each household member while bearing in mind the concrete circumstances and individual needs in each situation.II. The New Moroccan Family Code: A Reform That Is Faithful to Islamic TraditionIn comparison to the former Moudawana,2 the new Code is characterized by its clearer style, at least in the Arabic version, and by the abundance of rules, grouped into four hundred articles.3 On the whole, however, the new Code is arguably in continuity with the former one, as both draw inspiration from the same sources.4 The new Code is also clearly in line with the Islamic tradition governing family law. It may even be said that the rules of the new Code elevate the principles of Islam in this field into mandatory rules for the following issues, treated in sequence: marriage, the dissolution of marriage, filiation, legal capacity, and wills and succession, since the Code mandates the intervention of the Public Prosecutor's Office in all of these matters.5This observation may be seen as too severe. Yet, there is no lack of evidence to this effect. By virtue of Article 400, the last provision of the Code, judges must follow the lead of the Malikite rite6 absent an available, incomplete, or imprecise written rule of law.7 Article 400 of the new Moudawana confirms, in a sense, the prohibition against Moroccan judges relying on sources other than Islamic ones in the area of family relations. …

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Marie-Claire Foblets

Papers

Moroccan Women in Europe: Bargaining for Autonomy*

Religion and Rethinking the Public-Private Divide: Introduction

External dimensions of EU migration and asylum law and policy = Dimensions externes du droit et de la politique d'immigration et d'asile de l'UE

EU and non-EU harmonised protection statuses in Belgium

Conflicts of law in cross-cultural family disputes in Europe today: who will reorient conflicts of law?