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The concept of globalisation is commonly discussed as an issue in international law. However, little attention is paid to its influence in domestic family law. As a result of the growing trend of globalisation, legal and cultural norms of the host culture and the foreign culture are fused, thereby, leading to cultural homogenisation or cultural hybridisation, depending on the level of accommodation of the foreign norm by the host norm. One of the areas where hybridisation or homogenisation of cultural and legal norms manifests, especially in African countries including Nigeria, is in the marriage system, particularly in the conclusion of marriage contracts. In Nigeria, one of the impacts of cultural hybridisation is the evolvement of multi-tiered marriage, where a couple combines marriages under the statute law, customary law and religious law, especially Islamic law. This paper is an exploratory study of how globalisation impacts on how and why multi-tiered marriage is contracted in contemporary Nigeria. The paper also briefly discusses how the combination of marriages as a response to globalisation affects the operation of family law rules in Nigeria as well as the rights of the parties involved, especially the women.

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Traditionally, the claims of matrimonial property are mainly confined to existing and personal property which exist or were acquired during the marriage prior to the divorce, such as buildings, land, vehicles, etc. However, with the changes in the economic sources and social behaviour of the modern society, whereby earnings and proprietary rights are no longer confined to merely property but also include future interest and future earnings such as investments, trust fund and business ventures, it is perceived that the scope of claims on matrimonial property shall also be revolutionised to include claims in future earnings of the divorced parties.This paper discusses the legal principle which the court could apply when it comes to claims on future interest as matrimonial property. The case law analysis is merely confined to the Malaysian precedents and the analogy of human capital earning is used by the writers to justify the possibility of claims in all types of future earnings as matrimonial property.

The article focuses on the divorce reform in England. In 1996, the Family Law Act was passed by the Parliament in England, which is cited as the Family Law Act, 1996. Unfortunately, after it was passed, there were problems concerning its enforcement and the Government decided to postpone the enforcement of some parts of the Act. Generally, the suspension involves the law concerning the ground of divorce and mediation. Although the overall position of the Act remains uncertain, it is significant to examine it because of its strength in upholding the institution of the family. Under the Act, mediation is introduced as it has many advantages such as resolving disputes amicably and it can reduce backlog of cases in the court. It is hoped that the discussion in this article will benefit Malaysia and hopefully we may learn something from the divorce reform that took place in England. In Malaysia, the current Law Reform (Marriage and Divorce) Act 1976 has been enacted since 1976. Perhaps, we may introduce new family legislation governing non-Muslims and include mediation as an alternative means of resolving family disputes.