Legal pluralism, Sharia law and the right to fair trial: a case for incompatibility within the Council of Europe

Pluralism has been recognised by the European Court of Human Rights as a guiding principle for the interpretation and application of the European Convention on Human Rights, being inseparably linked to the ideals of democracy and human rights. Legal pluralism, however, is a distinct and unendorsed system which may raise concerns in relation to the respect of a number of rights enshrined in the Convention and the Constitutions of the member states of the Council of Europe. This paper studies the human rights implications that occur from the adoption of concurrent Sharia jurisdictions, as manifestations of legal pluralism, applied informally and formally in the UK and Greece respectively, in the area of family law. It particularly explores the incompatibility of those jurisdictions with the right to fair trial, as established in Article 6 of the ECHR and interpreted by the Court. It concludes by calling for an absolute ban to parallel Sharia jurisdictions across the members of the Council of Europe, which, as seen in the light of the Court’s case law, clearly contravene Convention rights.