In this guest post, Amin Al-Astewani, PhD candidate, University of Manchester Law School, contemplates the fate of Baroness Cox’s Arbitration and Mediation Services (Equality) Bill…

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Baroness Cox’s six-year campaign to address the plight of British Muslim women came to a grinding halt on 11 March. The date had marked a momentous occasion for Cox and her supporters. Her private Member’s bill had been scheduled to receive its first ever debate in the House of Commons, after failing to pass through the House of Lords four times in a row since it was first introduced in 2011. Due to a busy parliamentary timetable, however, it was not discussed. Since 11 March marked the last allotted sitting of the current parliamentary session for private Members’ bills to be discussed, Cox’s bill will most likely not reappear until the next parliamentary session (if she decides to reintroduce it once again).[1] It is therefore an appropriate time to pose the following question: why has Baroness Cox’s bill failed systematically to become law? Continue reading →