In South Africa, many years ago, our Rabbonim worked with the government to make a law that a civil divorce cannot be given in the presence of a “religious impediment to remarriage”. What this means practically, is that a get-refuser opens himself up to some very serious consequences, such as very substantial alimony (we call it maintenance) and any order the presiding judge in his/her unfettered discretion chooses to make. This theoretically could also include contempt of court and a stint in jail. South African jails are not known for their Daf Yomi programmes or Glatt Kosher cuisine!
I am sure that some would want to say that this is a get-meusah. This is not for certain reasons which distinguish this approach from the case in Rav Eliyashev’s teshuvah. Firstly, we are a unified community and have ONE Beis Din, which means that there is no shopping around (by either side)for sympathetic dayanim, this in and of itself eliminates a big portion of the problem and a lot of fighting. Secondly, things are arranged so that by the time the woman goes to court, the husband is on record as having refused the get AFTER being instructed to give it by the Beis Din and as such any sanction made against him by the court is with the full reshus of the Beis Din and as such the get is not a get meusah.
The upshot of this is that we have developed a culture of not tolerating get refusal. Period. We have very few cases of Agunos and in fact,the most recent case lasted for at most a couple of months and the husband who was placed in Cherem gave in before the matter even got to court, because his lawyers no doubt explained to him what was in store for him. Therein lies the value of this approach, it is a highly effective deterent. Also, it sends an unequivocal message that we do not stand for people abusing the Torah in order to abuse/control other people and that is a genuine Kiddush Hashem.