Letters Blogatory

The Blog of International Judicial Assistance | By Ted Folkman of Folkman LLC

Posts tagged “Sharia”

Case of the Day: Sahyouni v. Mamisch

Posted on December 21, 2017

The case of the day is Sahyouni v. Mamisch (ECJ 2017). I previewed the case in September. Here was my description: The husband and the wife, both Syrian nationals by birth, were married in an Islamic court in Homs, Syria in 1999. They moved to Germany, and both were German citizens. In 2013, the husband divorced the wife by making the appropriate declaration in the Islamic court in Latakia, Syria, and the court approved the divorce. Shortly thereafter, the wife signed a document acknowledging she had received the amount due to her under the Islamic marriage contract and releasing the husband from further obligation. The husband then sought recognition of the judgment in Germany. The Oberlandesgericht München recognized the divorce and denied the wife’s…

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Case to Watch: Molla Sali v. Greece

Posted on December 18, 2017

Longtime readers will know I am interested in the interplay between religious law and civil law. A good example was just argued in the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights. The facts of Molla Sali v. Greece are these. Mr. Molla Sali, a Muslim Greek national, left his entire estate to his wife in his will, which was drawn up by a notary in accordance with Greek civil law. His two sisters contested the will on the grounds that he was a member of the Muslim community in Thrace, and thus that Islamic law rather than Greek civil law governed inheritance in his case. And in fact in the Treaty of Lausanne, Greece agreed to “take, as regards [religious] minorities, in…

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Case to Watch: Sahyouni v. Mamisch

Posted on September 15, 2017

I’m keeping my eye on Sahyouni v. Mamisch, Case No. C-372/16, a case in the EU Court of Justice. The husband and the wife, both Syrian nationals by birth, were married in an Islamic court in Homs, Syria in 1999. They moved to Germany, and both were German citizens. In 2013, the husband divorced the wife by making the appropriate declaration in the Islamic court in Latakia, Syria, and the court approved the divorce. Shortly thereafter, the wife signed a document acknowledging she had received the amount due to her under the Islamic marriage contract and releasing the husband from further obligation. The husband then sought recognition of the judgment in Germany. The Oberlandesgericht München recognized the divorce and denied the wife’s request to…

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