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Transnational Hindu law adoptions: recognition and treatment in Britain*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 July 2009

Prakash Shah
Prakash Shah*
Affiliation:
Department of Law, Queen Mary, University of London
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Abstract

This article examines how the adoption of children under Hindu law in India is regarded by British private international law and immigration law. Through an analysis of case-law, it focuses particularly on how British judges regard the legitimacy of exclusion by the British immigration control system of children who have been adopted under a ‘foreign’ legal system which essentially permits private adoption arrangements. Examining the background to the regime of Indian Hindu law adoptions (which applies to Sikhs as well as Hindus), and the private international law and immigration rules which apply to such adoptees in the UK, the article finds some evidence in the judicial decisions of a more activist, human-rights-based, plurality-conscious position being taken. However, tracking the case-law further, the article concludes that such activism has not been followed through in more recent decisions leaving the conflictual position between transnational adopters and British legal systems largely unresolved.

Type
Research Article
Information
International Journal of Law in Context , Volume 5 , Issue 2 , June 2009 , pp. 107 - 130
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

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