Article 9 of the 1926 Lebanese Constitution guarantees that the personal status and religious interests of the people are respected, whatever religious sect they belong to. Decree 60 L.R. (13 March 1936) of the French High Commissioner, who also exercised the duties of the legislative authority during the French mandate in Lebanon, granted the recognized religious denominations in Lebanon the right to administer their own affairs and the right to legislate and pass judgement in respect of issues of personal status, with the limits of the Constitution, existing legislation and the rules of public order. Article 2 of the Lebanese law on Personal Status (3 April 1951) expressly stipulates that “denominational jurisdictions have authority (concerning matters of): marriage contract, its conditions and marital obligations as well as the validity or non-validity of the marriage…..”. This includes child custody.
Matters related to personal status (inheritance, marriage, divorce and child custody) are governed by a separate set of laws designed for each of the different sectarian communities and those laws are administered either by a separate judicial tribunal system or by a combination of a community based system with the national civil system. Although most sectarian communities in Lebanon have adopted a specific personal status code, the examination of the substance of the laws is further complicated by the fact that even where such a code exists, additional sources of laws and foreign legal opinions are considered. For example, the various Christian personal status laws are not limited to the relevant personal status code but also include the canon law of each church, the Bible, apostolic writings, resolutions of the general or local synods, and edicts issued by the patriarchs. In addition, legal opinions in Christian courts are not limited to those issued by Lebanese ecclesiastical courts, but include those issued by high foreign religious tribunals.
In Lebanon, disputes about the application of law by different religious courts can be determined by the civil courts but there is no (non religious) civil personal status jurisdiction in Lebanon. Where parties have only married abroad, the Lebanese courts can apply the foreign law rules to personal status disputes. From time to time, suggestions have been made to reform the sectarian / confessional personal status system – usually involving as a bare minimum at least a choice of a civil (non religious) marriage but efforts at legal reform have failed thus far.
Andrew Allen QC 