Partial Mediation and Substantive Justice in Islamic Family Law: Protecting Women’s and Children’s Rights after Divorce

Abstract

Partial mediation in the Religious Courts presents an academic problem because divorce may still be granted while agreements concerning maintenance, caregiving, and post-divorce rights are recorded as successful outcomes. This study aims to analyze the meaning of success in partial mediation, the management of power imbalances, the protection of the best interests of the child, and the integration of agreements into judicial decisions. The study employs a qualitative approach based on library research, doctrinal legal research, and an integrative literature review of regulations, judgments, institutional reports, and scholarly literature. The data are analyzed through content analysis and thematic analysis using the categories of substantive justice, procedural equality, child protection, legal certainty, and enforceability of rights. The findings show that partial mediation constitutes a hybrid practice that combines adjudication and consensus, yet its success cannot be measured solely by whether an agreement is reached. The quality of protection is determined by equal participation, adequate information, operational formulation of rights, judicial scrutiny, and implementation mechanisms. Success must therefore be assessed through procedural, distributive, juridical, child-protection, and implementation dimensions so that agreements do not remain merely formal recognition without actual fulfillment. The study concludes that partial mediation is just only when it produces real, certain, and sustainable protection for women and children after divorce.