Comparative Jurisprudence of Family Disputes in South Asia: Dissecting Legal and Non-Legal Way-Outs of Resolution in Light of Postmodernist Touch to Hybrid ADR and ODR

Abstract

Religion and personal laws play a vital role in the lives of people. Some countries follow strict religious laws whereas some adopted a rather blended version of traditional law and statutes. Nonetheless, the South Asian approach of dealing with disputes emanating from personal matters are twofold. Firstly, the legislative approach or legal way and secondly the non-legal way or the complementary alternative approach in contrast to the formal system. The legal ways are statutorily granted whereas the non-legal ways are enshrined within statutes and practices. The “ineradicable romanticism” between these two could provide an efficient regime where family disputes won’t be an uncalled burden on the parties and a sensitization of their rights, duties and obligations would be ensured. This paper aims at assessing the current scenario of India, Bangladesh and Pakistan as to the resolution of personal disputes from a comparative lens. The discussion extends to revisiting the legal regime along with assessment of prevalent non-legal practices and their viability. Elaboration on the matter have been tangled with Postmodernist theory to prove efficacy of the system in practice and to show how Postmodernism justifies the emergence and existence of need-based contextual dispute resolution mechanisms. Further, the current trend has been dissected keeping “constructive postmodernism” in mind that’ll essentially play a large part in coming future to reach the high pinnacle in this discourse.