Sikh Court Opens in Britain

Religion Media Center reports that in England, the world's first Sikh court opened last Saturday. However, unlike Muslim and Jewish religious courts, Sikhism does not have its own legal code.

 According to the report:

The court [in London] was set up by Sikh lawyers who felt that secular judges lacked the religious and cultural expertise to deal with disputes between Sikhs. It will operate as an alternative forum for dispute resolution for UK-based Sikhs involved in family and civil disputes....

[Baldip Singh] aid its purpose would be “to assist Sikh families in their time of need when dealing with conflict and disputes in line with Sikh principles”....

[The court will] work within the remit of the Arbitration Act (1996), under which anyone — legally qualified or not — can sit as arbitrator so long as both parties agree to submit to the same set of rules....

At the first instance, Sikh court “magistrates” will mediate in disputes to try to negotiate a settlement, as well as directing court users to courses that can help them work on issues that have contributed to the dispute. These courses, developed with Sikh charities, cover low-level domestic violence, anger management, gambling and substance misuse and are available in Punjabi as well as English....

Jordan's Judicial Council Changes Court System For Small Evangelical Denominations

Religion News Service reports that Jordan's Judicial Council, apparently responding to growing tension between Orthodox Christians and Evangelicals, has issued a memo changing the legal status of some 60 smaller Christian denominations in the country:

In Jordan, the legal system is divided into civil courts, where commercial and criminal cases are heard, and separate religious courts that settle matters of marriage, divorce and child custody according to canon law for the majority-Muslim population and for the 11 recognized Christian communities.

While United Pentecostal and Jehovah’s Witnesses members are allowed their own ecclesiastical courts, legal matters for members of nearly 60 other Protestant churches are heard in civil court, or, for minor matters, work through the court of the Anglican Church, one of the 11 approved denominations.

But on Feb. 5, in response to [Greek Orthodox Archbishop] Atallah’s letter, Judge Mohammad Al Ghazo, who heads Jordan’s Judicial Council, issued a memo disqualifying any Christian without an approved ecclesiastical court from using the civilian courts. Cases would instead be referred to the Council of Church Leaders, a government advisory body.

Evangelicals fear that the change could endanger the validity of past marriages performed in evangelical churches. Orthodox proponents say that the concern is a proliferation of small separate ecclesiastical courts.

Fellow Church Members File Ecclesiastical Complaint Against Attorney General Sessions

CNN reports that on Monday, 640 members of the United Methodist Church filed a formal ecclesiastical complaint (full text) against fellow church member, Attorney General Jeff Sessions.  The complaint was addressed to pastors of the churches in Mobile, Alabama and Clarendon, Virginia that Sessions attends.  The complaint, brought pursuant to Paragraph 2702.3 of the United Methodist Book of Discipline, charges Sessions with child abuse, immorality, racial discrimination and dissemination of doctrines contrary to the standards of doctrine of the United Methodist Church.  Calling for entering into a "just resolution process" with Sessions, the complaint says:

Mr. Sessions-- as a long-term United Methodist in a tremendously powerful, public position-- is particularly accountable to us, his church.  He is ours, and we are his.  As his denomination, we have an ethical obligation to speak boldly when one of our members is engaged in causing significant harm in matter contrary to the Discipline on the global stage....  [W]e believethat the severity of his actions and the harm he is causing to immigrants, migrants, refugees, and asylees calls for his church to step into a process to directly engage with him as a part of our community.

European Court Affirms Jurisdiction of Ecclesiastical Courts

In Nagy v. Hungary, (ECHR, Sept. 14, 2017), the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights, by a vote of 10-7, upheld the exclusive jurisdiction of ecclesiastical courts over contractual disputes that are matters of ecclesiastical law.  In the case, a pastor in the Reformed Church of Hungary was suspended, and ultimately removed, from his position through church disciplinary proceedings because of statements he had made in a local newspaper.  He then sued in civil courts for compensation that he says he was owed for the periods prior to his termination.  When lower courts dismissed his claims, he argued that this violated his right under Article 6(1) of the European Convention on Human Rights to a fair trial by an independent and impartial tribunal established by law in determining his civil rights.  The European Court's majority opinion held in part:

... [A]pplicant’s claim ... concerned an assertion that a pecuniary claim stemming from his ecclesiastical service, governed by ecclesiastical law, was actually to be regarded as falling under the civil law.... Given the overall legal and jurisprudential framework existing in Hungary ..., the domestic courts’ conclusion that the applicant’s pastoral service had been governed by ecclesiastical law and their decision to discontinue the proceedings cannot be deemed arbitrary or manifestly unreasonable.... [This] Court cannot but conclude that the applicant had no “right” which could be said, at least on arguable grounds, to be recognised under domestic law. To conclude otherwise would result in the creation by the Court, by way of interpretation of Article 6 § 1, of a substantive right which had no legal basis in the respondent State.

Four separate dissenting opinions were also filed. ADF issued a press release regarding the decision.