Islamic law in comparison: implications for the resolution of Muslim migrants’ cases and disputes

In current societies, transformations connected to an increasing cultural plurality require a reflection on the most appropriate legal instruments to meet the requests for justice in multicultural contexts. Apparently, the same multiculturalism, as a governance system of diversity, gives way to intercultural instruments which are more careful about real integration processes in civil society. Hence the question: can our legal order make room for ethnic-confessional rules to solve intercultural disputes? With particular reference to Muslim communities, the recourse (informal and at intra-community level) to rules derived from the Islamic legal tradition is in competition with the international-private procedural instruments of referral to national laws. ADR and out-of-court settlements may provide domestic courts with the basis for decisions which comply with the public policy, allowing a progressive adjustment of Islamic religious rules to secular legal orders modelled on European values, principles, and rules.