Strict Liability Food Law and Halal Slaughter
| Published date | 01 October 2014 |
| Date | 01 October 2014 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1350/jcla.2014.78.5.940 |
| Subject Matter | Comments |
COMMENT
Strict Liability Food Law and
Halal Slaughter
John Pointing*
Keywords Regulation; Food law; Shariah; Religious slaughter
Shariah and state law
Probably many people living in the UK today experience some degree of
fear or suspicion, or even hostility, towards Shariah law. Barbaric
punishments for breaches of criminal law, medieval cruelty in its treatment
of apostates and women form vivid images of the practices of Shariah law
in countries where it dominates as a system of law. But legal systems are
far more complex, and points of engagement between Shariah and state
law in non-Muslim countries receive less attention. Shariah, or Islamic,
law appears to be very different from the more familiar state law, whether
by state law we mean English law, Anglo-Welsh law, Anglo-Northern Irish
law, Scots law, EU law or some combination of these. Islamic law is not
isolated from state law and neither is it necessarily at odds with state law.
The relationship between these systems is complex—as is the significance
of non-state law—and not well understood by legislators, lawyers or the
public at large.1
This comment is concerned with Halal food law. Food law in the UK is
comprised mainly of strict liability regulation based on the criminal law
and is enforced by local authority environmental health and trading
standards services.2 A statutory authority—the Food Standards Agency—
was set up in 1999 in order to ensure that high standards in the production
and safety of food are maintained. This is a field that excites little interest
amongst the general body of lawyers, but to Muslims food law is of primary
concern. The distinction between that which is permitted—Halal—and
that which is Haram, or forbidden, is of fundamental importance to
Muslims. That does not mean that there is a consensus on what is
permitted. Islamic jurisprudence is interpretative and based on religious
scholarship and on various schools of thought that allow important
differences to subsist in how juridical categories are interpreted.3 Shariah
law is preoccupied with this complex and contested field: religious beliefs
* Barrister specialising in environmental law and food law. Legal Partner of Statutory
Nuisance Solutions, website: www.statutorynuisancesolutions.co.uk; e-mail: john@
statutorynuisancesolutions.co.uk.
1 W. Twining, General Jurisprudence: Understanding Law from a Global Perspective (Cambridge
University Press: Cambridge, 2009) ch. 12.
2 R. Malcolm and J. Pointing, Food Safety Enforcement (Chadwick House Publishing: London,
2005).
3 M. Kamali, The Parameters of Halal and Haram in Shariah and the Halal Industry
(International Institute of Islamic Thought: London, 2013).
The Journal of Criminal Law (2014) 78 JCL 387–391 387
doi:10.1350/jcla.2014.78.5.940
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