Family law
In Lebanon, 18 different religious sects are officially recognized, four are Islamic, one Israeli and the others are all Christian sects. As a general rule, the basic criterion to resolve an internal conflict of laws and jurisdiction between these religious families is the faith of the involved person. If the prospective spouses are from different sects or even from different religions the marriage will be organized by the competent religious authority of the prospective husband, unless otherwise expressly stated by the parties to the marriage. The religious courts preside over cases of personal status and operate with very little government oversight. Because Lebanon’s constitution guarantees respect for “personal status and religious interests,” religious authorities have been keeping personal status laws under their control.
The Lebanese parliament passed a domestic violence law in 2014, which includes protection measures, such as restraining orders and policing and court reforms, as well as funding to enact the reforms. The law also introduced an official definition of domestic violence into the Lebanese criminal code. However, Lebanese women are still at risk of marital rape, which because of pressure from religious authorities, is not a part of the criminal code. A spouse’s threat or violence to claim “marital right to intercourse” is a crime, but the actual physical act is not.
There are extreme difficulties in returning a child from Lebanon when retained by a Lebanese parent. Lebanon is not a party to the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. There are no extradition treaties. Under Lebanese law, nationals may prevent their children from leaving Lebanon. Lebanon does not recognize international parental kidnapping as a crime. Issues of child custody and divorce in Lebanon are generally decided in religious courts under religious law. Thus, if the father is a Sunni Muslim and the mother is a Christian the custody of their children will normally be decided by a Sunni Muslim court. One might petition a civil court to handle a custody case instead of a religious court. The issue would be whether the religious court has jurisdiction. It could take up to two years to have the civil court assume jurisdiction and a minimum of four to five years to have the case decided. Among Sunni Muslims, the father has physical custody of a daughter over the age of nine and of a boy over the age of seven. For Shia Muslims the father generally has physical custody at for boys at age 2 and for girls at age 7.
If a father establishes that the mother is unfit or lacking good moral character, she will lose any right to the child. Muslim law requires a child to be raised in the Muslim faith, and if it were proven that a mother tried to raise the child as a Christian, she could be found unfit. Lebanon does not recognize dual nationality. Dual nationals who carry Lebanese papers will be treated as Lebanese nationals by security authorities. A child who is a dual American and citizen would be bound by Lebanese law in the eyes of the Lebanese civil courts.
If the marriage was made abroad before a civil institution, then the civil court of first instance in Lebanon is competent to look into the divorce case except if both parties are Muslims.
