Britain’s grand social experiment with multiculturalism: The end of one law for all?

Aydarus Yusuf has lived in the UK for the past 15 years, but he feels more bound by the traditional law of his country of birth - Somalia - than he does by the law of England and Wales.

“Us Somalis, wherever we are in the world, we have our own law. It’s not Islamic, it’s not religious - it’s just a cultural thing.”

The 29-year-old youth worker wants to ensure that other members of his community remain subject to the law of their ancestors too - he helps convene an unofficial Somali court, or “gar”, in south-east London.

Aydarus is not alone in this desire. A number of parallel legal universes have been quietly evolving among minority communities. As well as Somali customary law, Islamic and Jewish laws are being applied and enforced in parts of the UK.

Islamic and Jewish law remains confined to civil matters. But the BBC’s Law in Action programme has learned that the Somali court hears criminal cases too.

One of the most serious cases it has dealt with was the “trial” of a group of young men accused of stabbing a fellow Somali. “When the suspects were released on bail by the police, we got the witnesses and families together for a hearing,” says Aydarus. “The accused men admitted their guilt and apologised. Their fathers and uncles agreed compensation.”

So how did this court come about? Some academic lawyers see these alternative legal systems as an inevitable - and welcome - consequence of multiculturalism.