Divorcing Traditions is an ethnography of Islamic legal expertise and practices in India, a secular state in which Muslims are a significant minority and where Islamic judgments are not legally binding. Katherine Lemons argues that an analysis of divorce in accordance with Islamic strictures is critical to the understanding of Indian secularism. Lemons analyzes four marital dispute adjudication forums run by Muslim jurists or lay Muslims to show that religious law does not muddle the categories of religion and law but generates them. Drawing on ethnographic and archival research conducted in these four institutions-NGO-run women's arbitration centers (mahila panchayats); sharia courts (dar ul-qazas); a Muslim jurist's authoritative legal opinions (fatwas); and the practice of what a Muslim legal expert (mufti) calls "spiritual healing"-Divorcing Traditions shows how secularism is an ongoing project that seeks to establish and maintain an appropriate relationship between religion and politics. A secular state is always secularizing. And yet, as Lemons demonstrates, the state is not the only arbiter of the relationship between religion and law: religious legal forums help to constitute the categories of private and public, religious and secular upon which secularism relies. In the end, because Muslim legal expertise and practice are central to the Indian legal system and because Muslim divorce's contested legal status marks a crisis of the secular distinction between religion and law, Muslim divorce, argues Lemons, is a key site for understanding Indian secularism.

The twenty-first century has ushered in a redefinition of the family and necessitated a reassessment of traditional and conventional models of spousal and parental relationships. In Family Law in Jamaica, Fara Brown delves into the contemporary state of family arrangements and sets the law and its application in the historical and cultural reality of Jamaican society. Examining the legislation and the most contemporary litigation, the gamut of family issues -from marriage and divorce, maintenance, custody, guardianship and adoption of children to paternity - are covered. Using realistic and practical everyday family situations, the practice and procedure of Jamaican family law is presented in an easy to understand and accessible way for both the ordinary reader as well as the student, practitioner and judge. The book's clear organization into distinct topics is further enhanced by questions for discussion as well as case citations and notes with references to additional material. Family law is dynamic and recent developments associated with surrogacy, the use of assisted reproductive technology, DNA testing, human trafficking and identity fraud are also featured. While significant progress has been made in the development of family law since Jamaica's independence, the conflicting and anomalous areas of the law are also discussed while pointing to the way forward.

Reproductive science continues to revolutionise reproduction and propel us further into uncharted territories. The revolution signalled by the birth of Louise Brown after IVF in 1978, prompted governments across Europe and beyond into regulatory action. Forty years on, there are now dramatic and controversial developments in new reproductive technologies. Technologies such as uterus transplantation that may enable unisex gestation and babies gestated by dad; or artificial wombs that will completely divorce reproduction from the human body and allow babies to be gestated by machines, usher in a different set of legal, ethical and social questions to those that arose from IVF. This book revisits the regulation of assisted reproduction and advances the debate on from the now much-discussed issues that arose from IVF, offering a critical analysis of the regulatory challenges raised by new reproductive technologies on the horizon.

Are you working with trust assets and interests in the context of matrimonial and family finance disputes? A comprehensive guide to issues frequently arising in English matrimonial finance cases, where one or both spouses has an interest in, or access to, trust assets. Key topics covered include: Jurisdiction Service and joinder Nuptial settlements Trusts as resources Enforcement Chapters summarise the key principles of English family finance and trust principles through diagrams, flowcharts and tables, alongside clear narrative, to ensure the more technical information is intelligible yet authoritative. An indispensable tool kit for English practitioners and judges working in the field of family finance, as well as those practising in other jurisdictions looking for an accessible guide to the English matrimonial arena. It also contains vital information for trust and corporate lawyers encountering matrimonial disputes when trustees are joined or otherwise intervene in family cases.

Each year, a number of youth who migrate alone and clandestinely from China to the United States are apprehended, placed in removal proceedings, and designated as unaccompanied minors. These young migrants represent only a fraction of all unaccompanied minors in the US, yet they are in many ways depicted as a preeminent professional and moral cause by immigration advocates. In and beyond the legal realm, the figure of the ""vulnerable Chinese child"" powerfully legitimates legal claims and attorneys' efforts. At the same time, the transnational ambitions and obligations of Chinese youth implicitly unsettle this figure. Youths' maneuvers not only belie attorneys' reliance on racialized discourses of childhood and the Chinese family, but they also reveal more broad uncertainties around legal frameworks, institutional practices, health and labor rights-and cause lawyering itself. Based on three years of fieldwork across the United States, Lawyering an Uncertain Cause is a novel study of the complex and often contradictory rights, responsibilities, and expectations that motivate global youth and the American attorneys who work on their behalf.

Each year, a number of youth who migrate alone and clandestinely from China to the United States are apprehended, placed in removal proceedings, and designated as unaccompanied minors. These young migrants represent only a fraction of all unaccompanied minors in the US, yet they are in many ways depicted as a preeminent professional and moral cause by immigration advocates. In and beyond the legal realm, the figure of the ""vulnerable Chinese child"" powerfully legitimates legal claims and attorneys' efforts. At the same time, the transnational ambitions and obligations of Chinese youth implicitly unsettle this figure. Youths' maneuvers not only belie attorneys' reliance on racialized discourses of childhood and the Chinese family, but they also reveal more broad uncertainties around legal frameworks, institutional practices, health and labor rights-and cause lawyering itself. Based on three years of fieldwork across the United States, Lawyering an Uncertain Cause is a novel study of the complex and often contradictory rights, responsibilities, and expectations that motivate global youth and the American attorneys who work on their behalf.