Women Abused in Sharia Law: Hasn’t This Been For Too Long Already?

Who can blame the UK if Sharia Law penetrates the legal system? Well, we all have the reason to blame the UK. In its endeavour to appeal to the Muslim community by including certain elements of Sharia law in banking laws for example, the UK is most likely to have an increased Sharia law presence in the next few years.

According to Muslim women, the UK had betrayed them because of the increasing influence of Sharia law, a legal construct they have condemned from their own homeland.

Baroness Caroline Cox of the British House of Lords had released her 40-page report “A Parallel World: Confronting the Abuse of Many Muslim Women in Britain Today” shows the effects of Sharia law in the UK’s Muslim community.

Baroness Cox cites the Arbitration Act of 1996. This allows parties to resolve troubles in British courts using Sharia principles.

Sharia law fuses the concepts of arbitration and mediation, but has the loophole of a “jurisdiction creep,” which allows them to decide cases related to criminal law, including domestic violence and grievous bodily harm as a result.

It is quite ironic that, while Britain is fighting Islamist extremism worldwide, it is using the same law that the terrorists use to downgrade the non-english speaking Muslim women residing in the United Kingdom back to their fears of the law from their homeland.

It is quite ironic, to say the least.

Scotland’s Assisted Suicide Law is Flawed

A proposed law in Scotland that would allow terminally-ill and incapacitated people to seek help with suicide could violate some European human rights laws according to legal experts.

The proposal will make assisted suicide or euthanasia lawful in certain circumstances.

Margo MacDonald, who was terminally-ill, had first introduced the law before her death in April. It  was a revision of her previous assisted suicide bill that also failed due to lack of Scottish Parliament support.

The Faculty of Advocates said “If Parliament is to pass legislation to protect persons from what would otherwise be the legal consequences of assisting another person to commit suicide, the Faculty considers it is important that such legislation is clear, readily understood, and not just by lawyers, that key terms are well-defined and not open to a variety of interpretations, and that the penalties for breach of the requirements of the legislation are spelled out.

“Otherwise, persons wishing the protection of the legislation will be unclear as to whether their acts are protected and may render themselves liable to prosecution for serious crimes or subsequent review of their conduct in a civil court.

“The Faculty considers that the Bill as currently drafted may not achieve these essential goals.”

The Law Society of Scotland said the Bill could breach the European Convention on Human Rights.

In England and Wales, the Suicide Act 1961 considers assisting someone’s suicide or suicide attempt is an offence. This is also the same in Northern Ireland.

Source

The Two Kinds of Child Custody Regulations

I am a single parent and I understand that divorce could mean you could never see your child again or your child lives with you, but this is not true. If you’re planning an undefended divorce with your husband, it is important that both of you know the differences in the kinds of child custody the legal system recognizes.

1.    Legal Custody

The parent who makes the decisions as to where the child will attend school, the religion the child will have and other medical matters is given the child’s legal custody. Legal custody could mean a single parent has this right to make decisions for the child or both parents could do so in a joint legal custody.

2.    Physical Custody

The parent where the child will live in most of the time has the physical custody of the child. Physical or residential custody also has its own sub-categories.

-A sole physical custody allows the child to physically reside only in one location. However, the non-custodial parent has more visitation rights, including the right to take the child home and sleep over during the day.

-A dual residence custody allows the child to live with one parent for one part of the year and live with the other parent. This could also be set for months and weeks, but the time spent in each location should be equal.

UK Social Media Defamation: What You Could Do

The Internet gave way for people to interact with each other quickly and effectively through social media and electronic messaging. However, this also gave way for many people to post offensive and obscene methods of expressing themselves through messages, pranks and deliberate meanness. Here are a few ways you could defend yourself against social media defamation in the United Kingdom.

1.     Defamation Bill 2013

On April 23, 2013, the UK Lords passed a defamation bill that would stop cases against journalists, academics or individuals who live outside the cases to reduce the amount of libel in the United Kingdom. The law makes filing for libel in social media a bit more difficult because you will need to prove the social effects of the defamation before the law can take action.

2.     Copy Important Documents

Conversations, mocking social media profiles, wall posts, tweets, blogs and virtually anything that shows defamation against you or any party, organization or other business must be documented and saved. Copying important documents like these online on soft copies serve as evidence in your future defamation case against the defamer.

3.     Leeway

In the Internet, defamation is different from cyberbullying. If a threat was issued against a person, they could just have the individual surveyed by authorities in case they prove true to their promise. Cyberbullying is intently defaming a person. Defamation, in itself, is a negative branding of a person, company or organization. There is leeway given to defamation than cyberbullying.

UK Fraud Laws: What Protection Do You Have?

In every country, people will try countless methods to earn more from a buyer by selling them a fraud or involving them in a scam. Every country deems fraud punishable by law. In the United Kingdom, the Fraud Act of 2006 protects consumers from fraud, fraud by false representation, fraud by failing to disclose information, fraud by superposition and more.

Most UK fraud and scams come from the Internet, through telemarketing or text marketing, and through actual fraud of certain criminals. Sometimes, these scams come from an anonymous call or text that is unsolicited. Often, these scams will tell you that you have money waiting in your bank account and a fee is needed to deposit the amount into your bank account.

Fraud by false representation tackles the area of buying designer products that turn out to be imitations with sub-par quality of materials used. Fake items, such as bags and clothing, are common targets. With digital media, pirated movies, DVDs and CDs are punishable by law for selling or even ownership.

If you’re a victim of fraud, the UK government has the Action Fraud hotline for its citizens who fell victim to Internet crime frauds and scams. Action Fraud’s suspects are not limited to individuals to large corporations and organized crime. Again, all fraud suspects are subject to punishment by the Fraud Act of 2006, which is commonly five to seven years imprisonment.

UK’s Penalties for Tax Evasion

The proper filing of taxes is a requirement in most countries and to skip this requirement could mean great penalties. In the United Kingdom, Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) ensures that all UK citizens fulfill their stamp duties and pay their taxes accordingly, or else, they can face the following consequences:

1.     Custodial Sentence

In a serious case of tax evasion, a citizen could face potential custodial sentence for tax evasion. Usually, these involve the citizen not paying their taxes for more than half a decade and gaining a large net profit. Sometimes, if the business is an underground business, for example, the sale of smuggled oil or perishable goods without taxation, the larger the profit, the larger the citizen’s potential for a custodial sentence.

2.     Paying it All Back

Along with the tax evader’s sentence, the law also requires you to pay back all the tax you owe along with the interest the tax has accrued over time. Along with the interest, you will also pay back the maximum penalty. For serious cases, evaders are actually charged with a 100% equivalent of the tax owed by the evader.

3.     Process

If you’re incarcerated for a high amount of tax evasion, you may need to serve your sentence and pay off your tax debt for the rest of your life. However, for tax evasion cases lower than £50,000, tax evaders may only face an offense and may need to pay only their actual tax, interest rate and penalty fee with an arrangement both the evader and the HMRC agrees upon.