Lack of Civil Marriage Law in Lebanon: Political System

Abstract

Lebanon is one of the few countries without a civil marriage law. Personal status matters are in the hands of religious denomination entities. As a result, couples that want to have an intra-religious marriage must travel abroad or select one of the religious denominations in which they want to affiliate as a couple, and the ones that don’t want to be affiliated into a religious denomination don’t have the option of getting married in Lebanese territory. This research studies the political reasons behind the lack of civil marriage law