ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the judicial practice of Spanish courts and takes into account the new European Union regulations, which are replacing each Member State's private international law (PIL). It explains what 'applying Islamic shari'a law' means for Spanish courts and for countries where Islam is the majority religion. The association of 'family law' with 'Islamic law' usually involves invoking religious texts, but these religious precepts are not directly applicable in most Muslim countries. The law in these countries has family codes and state laws, which can be reformed to some extent albeit within the framework of Islamic orthodoxy, and Morocco, which is the country of origin of most Muslim immigrants to Spain (MESS 2012), is no exception. The legal framework enabling Spanish courts to apply a foreign law to legal relationships connected to more than one country or legal system is PIL, the rules of which are becoming common to European Union Member States.
