Arbitrators’ Cross-Examination Questions as Directive Speech Acts in Shariah Court Alternative Dispute Resolution Proceedings

Judges, prosecutors, and defence counsels are the most powerful interlocutors in the legal proceedings of criminal cases, while Arbitrators share the same statutory power in Alternative Dispute Resolution Proceedings (ADRP) of shariah-based courts. Shariah courts’ ADRP is the most vital procedure that facilitates and actualises the resolution of civil disputes without formal adjudication. It is cheaper and faster compared to ordinary judicial proceedings. Thus, this current trend of formal adjudication attracts this paper. The paper explores the Rhetoric Acts of Arbitrators’ Cross Examination Questions (CEQU) as directive speech of Shariah courts during ADRP. Data were obtained from 12 civil cases on Family Dispute Marital Issues (FDMI). With the aid of the NVivo qualitative software program, the data were sorted, organised, synthesised, thematised, and coded for the analyses. Guided by Searle’s (1969) directive acts of speech framework, the data was interpreted and revealed various forms of rhetorical acts arbitrators used as CEQU during ADRP to resolve disputing issues. It was found that arbitrators use various forms of rhetorical acts as CEQU in Interactive Turn-Takings (ITT) during ADRP sessions. The findings also revealed that the common feature of arbitrators’ CEQU presupposes the rhetorical acts’ structure. The paper suggested that most of the CEQU operators are rhetorical markers that harness the smooth resolution of disputing issue/s. Hence, concluded that rhetorical acts of CEQU assist arbitrators in resolving disputes in Shariah-Based ADRP.