eBook
The international workshop and the present e-volume draw their inspiration from the circumstance that several countries in Europe are experiencing a growing number of cases in which individuals (mainly immigrants) claim to have a series of family and personal matters regulated by the law of their country of origin, under international private law. In so far as this foreign law corresponds to – or is largely influenced by – Islamic law (or other religious law), domestic legal systems in Europe face the problem of reviewing the compatibility of such religiously inspired foreign law with domestic (and European) standards of fundamental rights, mainly by applying the public policy (ordre public) exception which prevents the administrative application or the judicial enforcement of foreign law or foreign judicial or administrative decisions that are qualified as incompatible. The chapters of this e-volume aim at considering the current attitude shown by the judiciary in some European states, while ultimately focusing on whether a shared European ordre public conception in the field of family law is emerging in case law. At the same time, there is a need to consider that traditional Islamic law is not in itself a uniform body of law and the role of judiciary towards more “liberal” interpretation of Islamic law should be not underestimated.
The focus of the papers is on the constitutional framework of judicial autonomy as a component of the right to self-government of American Tribes, Canadian First Nations and Sami people in Scandinavia in a comparative perspective. The judicial interaction with the Constitutions and the legal and judicial systems of the concerned States in North America and Europe is explored. Particular attention has been paid to independent indigenous judicial powers and courts as well as to issues of (independently) determining membership to the indigenous group (and judicial locus standi).