360 Pages
    by Routledge

    360 Pages
    by Routledge

    Legal Practice and Cultural Diversity considers how contemporary cultural and religious diversity challenges legal practice, how legal practice responds to that challenge, and how practice is changing in the encounter with the cultural diversity occasioned by large-scale, post-war immigration. Locating actual practices and interpretations which occur in jurisprudence and in public discussion, this volume examines how the wider environment shapes legal processes and is in turn shaped by them. In so doing, the work foregrounds a number of themes principally relating to changing norms and practices and sensitivity to cultural and religious difference in the application of the law. Comparative in approach, this study places particular cases in their widest context, taking into account international and transnational influences on the way in which actors, legal and other, respond.

    Contents: Legal practice and cultural diversity: introduction, Roger Ballard, Alessandro Ferrari, Ralph Grillo, André J. Hoekema, Marcel Maussen and Prakash Shah; Cultural diversity: challenge and accommodation, Roger Ballard, Alessandro Ferrari, Ralph Grillo, André J. Hoekema, Marcel Maussen and Prakash Shah; Indian secular pluralism and its relevance for Europe, Werner Menski; Legal pluralism and differentiated morality: Shari'a in Ontario?, Veit Bader; Transforming to accommodate? Reflections on the Shari'a debate in Britain, Prakash Shah; Shari'a in a European context, Mathias Rohe; Objection, Your Honour! Accommodating niqab-wearing women in courtrooms, Natasha Bakht; The challenge of African customary laws to English legal culture, Gordon R. Woodman; Religious challenges to the secularized identity of an insecure polity: a tentative sociology of Québec's 'reasonable accommodation' debate, Jean-François Gaudreault-DesBiens; Does the Dutch judiciary pluralize domestic law?, André J. Hoekema; The influence of culture on the determination of damages: how cultural relativism affects the analysis of trauma, Alison Dundes Renteln; Jews and Muslims in France; changing responses to cultural and religious diversity, Martine Cohen; L'affaire du foulard in the shadow of the Strasbourg court: Article 9 and the public career of the veil in France, Claire de Galembert; The changing position of religious minorities in English law: the legacy of Begum, Russell Sandberg; Approaches to diversity in the domestic courts: Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights, Samantha Knights; Human rights in contexts of ethnic plurality: always a vehicle for liberation?, Roger Ballard; Index.

    Biography

    Ralph Grillo is Emeritus Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Sussex, UK, Roger Ballard, University of Manchester, UK, Alessandro Ferrari, University of Insubria, Italy, André Hoekema, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Marcel Maussen, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands and Prakash Shah, Queen Mary University, London, UK.

    'This book provides valuable information and commentary on one of the most important developments in contemporary Western legal systems: their confrontation with the challenges and opportunities of deepening cultural diversity. Wide-ranging and richly detailed, it offers thought-provoking reading for all practitioners and theorists of law in multicultural societies.' Roger Cotterrell, Queen Mary University of London, UK '...this book raises topical and important issues about the future of legal practice in societies which are increasingly diverse both in culture and religion. The editors deserve credit for the thoughtful arrangement of essays, the intended aim of which is to document and explore a wide range of aspects from the perspective of social sciences.' Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Law '...this book raises topical and important issues on the future of legal practice in increasingly culturally and religiously diverse societies. The editors deserve credit for the thoughtful arrangement of essays, the intended aim of which is to document and explore a wide range of aspects from the perspective of social sciences.' Legal Studies 'The book is made up of a high percentage of very strong articles that all have a clear legal understanding and all reflect highly relevant perspectives on contemporary discourse on plurality in society ... refreshingly original and scholarly insights into the current state of the art ... well written ... funny at times.' Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations