The ever rejected reform, Civil marriage as I wrote about it back in 1997
Battle of forms in civil or religious marriage
Many “mixed” couples avoid personal status law by holding their wedding abroad. Should this change?
By Diana Rhayem
Special to the Daily Star
May 15, 1997
The following article is on the juncture of law and religion. It is an exposition of basic legal differences between civil and religious marriage. It examines ways to accommodate the difficult balance between marriage as a religious institution, and marriage as a civil contract. In Lebanon, the aberration of “having to go to Cyprus” in order to celebrate marriage between two persons of different faiths, without subjecting one of them to the other party’s rituals and its legal consequences, highlights one of the absurd dimensions of the confessional system.
