Religious courts provide a useful service for those whose faith they represent but they are in no way replacing civil law in the area of marriage and divorce

Following the Archbishop of Canterbury’s lecture on Religious and Civil Law in 2008, the existence and status of religious courts has proved controversial in the UK. These concerns have come to the fore more recently as a result of the Arbitration and Mediation Services (Equality) Bill (HL Bill 72), introduced into the House of Lords by Baroness Cox, which seeks to regulate the operation of religious arbitration, prohibiting it from matters which lie within the jurisdiction of the criminal or family courts. However, Gillian Douglas and Russell Sandberg report here on their research at Cardiff University, which suggests that much of the debate to date, and the content of this Private Members Bill, are based on several misunderstandings.