This has created a precedent: a UK court recognising sharia law in a judgment:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6018133/Landmark-ruling-sees-British-court-recognise-sharia-law-time.html
https://www.breitbart.com/london/2018/08/02/court-recognises-shariah-law-marriage-uk-legal-first/
“In a legal first, a British High Court judge has recognised a shariah marriage when ruling on a ‘divorce’ petition of a Muslim woman, likely setting a precedent on the acceptance of Islamic marriages and divorces in the UK.
Mr Justice Williams ruled that an estranged Muslim couple’s Islamic marriage does fall under the scope of the 1973 Matrimonial Causes Act and that they could, therefore, ‘divorce’ — despite the couple never having had a legal civil ceremony, reports The Guardian. Nasreen Akhter and Mohammed Shabaz Khan, both of Pakistani heritage, had ‘married’ in an Islamic nikah ceremony conducted by an imam in 1998 in West London, and Mr Khan, a businessman, was said by Ms Akhter to have “always introduced me as his wife”. Ms Akhter attempted to file for divorce, which her partner rejected, with Mr Khan saying that they were not legally married, but only under Islamic law."
