Legal Research

House of Lords, Shari?a Law and the Grant of Asylum

By Simon Fodden

The House of Lords has just released a judgment, Em (Lebanon) (Fc) (Fc) v. Secretary of State For The Home Department [2008] UKHL 64, of some interest.

A mother and her seven-year-old son from Lebanon sought asylum in the U.K., claiming a right to remain under article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights read in conjunction with article 14. She had been granted a divorce from her husband in Lebanon and had actual custody of their child; when the boy would turn seven, Shari’a law would automatically passed all custody, legal and actual, to the father; the mother might be allowed supervised visits with her son. To escape this result, the mother took the child to England, where she applied for the right to remain on the basis that Shari’a law would, in her case, result in flagrant denial of her right to family life.

The Lords reversed the Court of Appeal decision and allowed the mother, and consequently her dependent son, to stay in the U.K.

1. Lebanon is not a signatory of the Convention.

Full post as published by Slaw.ca on October 24, 2008 (boomark / email).