Academic

The moderator, Professor Emily Buss, took the moderator's privilege to ask the first question: is having a separate, religiously based family law normatively desirable, or is reform rather than overhaul a second-best, more feasible solution? Professor Vatuk claimed that separate family law is a political reality that will not change in the near future even though a uniform family code would be normatively desirable. Ms. Ruebenacker replied that secularizing the law would have to happen first because the law must be general enough to apply to everyone. Ms. Anwar agreed with Vatuk that it is impossible in the near term, and implementing a secular family law failed in Bangladesh. Professor Badran said that the best chance is reforming law where it is separate but preventing the implementation of separate law where it does not yet exist.