Translocalism, Migration and Sharia

One consequence of migration of large populations from Middle East and North Africa to Europe is that European legal systems meet various forms of Islamic law. In some cases, for example the dissolution of a marriage entered in a foreign state, European courts in some circumstances have to take foreign laws based on the Islamic tradition into consideration within the framework of international private law. In other instances marriage and divorce are decided in European mosques without being recognized by the state. As a result there is a phenomenon of halting marriages, for example when a civil divorce is recognized by the state but not by the Muslim environment and the country of origin. In order to come to terms with this some European states have entered agreements with the states from which important numbers of immigrants originate (Netherlands with Morocco, Norway with Pakistan). This might serve to avoid serious problems for individuals with double citizenship but it also may endow foreign states with the role of supervising immigrant populations. This situation makes it necessary to reconsider the meaning of concepts such as secularity, state sovereignty and law.