BARGAINING IN THE SHADOW OF GOD'S LAW: ISLAMIC MAHR CONTRACTS AND THE PERILS OF LEGAL SPECIALIZATION

In 1978, the courts of New Jersey dissolved the marriage of the Chaudrys. Because they were Muslim, the Chaudrys signed a contract when they were married. Indeed, for a Muslim marriage is a contract. It is not possible to enter into a Muslim marriage without signing a contract. Legal specialization creates another problem that is also on display in American courts' treatment of Islamic marriage contracts. In Part I of this article, the author argues that creating specialized bodies of law increases the danger of promulgating rules that diverge from transactional reality. In Part II, he illustrate these problems in the context of Islamic marriage contracts, explaining the religious context in which they arise and the way in which the law of premarital obligations can be perversely applied to them. Finally, in Part III, he argues that the general law of contracts, rather than the supposedly more nuanced law of premarital agreements, allows judges to reach defensible results in litigation over mahr contracts.