A dual legal system in Australia : the formalization of Shari'a

Legal pluralism, or the dual legal system, is in essence a postcolonial phenomenon. People movement—migration—from the poor South to the rich North started in earnest at the end of the colonial era. Many Muslims were part of this migration process, and as a result we have today a visible Muslim presence in many countries of the West. In a number of Western countries, demand by Muslims for dual legal system is fast growing and is a direct legacy of postcolonial migration processes. Great Britain, for example, which has over two million Muslims, in late 2008 officially endorsed Shari'a (Islamic law) tribunals governing marriage, divorce, and inheritance to make legally binding decisions when parties involved agree. This article looks at the Muslim call for the dual legal system in Australia in relation to the establishment of Shari'a as a separate code of law and explores the basis upon which such a call rests. It argues that this demand by Muslims in Australia is not only premature but sociologically unsustainable. Although Islam is a permanent feature of Australian multiculturalism and the Muslim population through migration and birth is fast increasing, Muslims in Australia remain divided on ethnic, parochial, and ideological lines. To gather this fragmentary community to any religious function is enormously difficult, let alone getting it to agree on a set of Islamic legal codes or the Shari'a.