Howard Shelley’s letter about the potential usefulness of sharia law raises the thorny question of how sharia is to be ‘given a try’. At present sharia courts hear cases and give judgments on a voluntary basis. The only further step I could envisage being taken would be to make those judgments enforceable by the general law. For that to happen, sharia court judgments would be open to the examination and supervision of the civil courts which would apply the general civil law, particularly on human rights issues.

Would the sharia courts be willing to subject themselves to that? How would sharia jurisprudence on apostasy or adultery fare in those circumstances? Would our appeal courts apply sharia and thus have to become expert in sharia jurisprudence, or would they simply strike down judgments which breached our civil law?

The only way of avoiding those difficulties and do as Mr Shelley suggests would be to exempt sharia courts from compliance with our laws while giving them enforcement powers. This is not a scenario any lawyer should contemplate with equanimity, still less promote.

Peter Ryder, Middlewich, Cheshire