As an undergraduate, one of the most interesting topics I studied was called conflict of laws, a study of the discrepancy between the laws of different countries (or cultures) in matters (mainly) of personal law. An interesting example of such a conflict is provided by the clash between Muslim family law and English family law.
Take the issue of marriage and divorce. For Muslims, what matters is the nikah ceremony. As this operates outside English law, there is potential for conflict: you can obviate the spirit of English law by conducting just the nikah ceremony. Hence though polygamy is forbidden under English law, most British Pakistanis know of at least one person with more than one wife. In the eyes of English law, such men and women are unmarried, but not in the eyes of the law that matters to such people. Living together while unmarried is anathema to most Muslims.
Further conflict arises in matters relating to divorce. The conflict can be exploited by divorcing parties to make life difficult for each other, particularly where there is much acrimony. In the case where a couple have gone through an English marriage and undergone the nikah ceremony, the man could divorce the woman under English law but refuse the tilak (religious divorce). The woman is thereby trapped; she is unable to re-marry until a long procedure involving the shariah court is gone through. Even then some scholars are of the opinion that such divorces are invalid.
There are also cases where, after obtaining the tilak, the man or woman then refuses to assent to the English divorce. This is common where the party being refused assent is non-British and as had to return to their country of origin after the marital dispute. The British citizen, by refusing to provide an English divorce, is effectively making sure such a person is unable to return to the UK again (as someone’s marriage partner).
The problem with such conflicts of law is that they can be exploited to harm people out of sheer spite and ill-will, and furthermore they lead to hypocrisy and falsehood. For example, there are many Muslim men in the UK who have more than one wife. To them, for people to live together when unmarried is sinful. Yet for whatever reason if they are questioned by British authorities they would claim they have only one wife and if challenged further would claim the other person is a mistress and that they are not married to them! That goes against the spirit of both Islamic and English law.
Again, take the case of a man or woman who refuses to assent to an English divorce but engages in a nikah ceremony. Such a person is also living a lie. In the eyes of friends and family they are married, something which they would deny if asked by the state. This cannot be compatible with the spirit of Islam or English law.
