| Code of Muslim Personal Laws | |
|---|---|
 | |
| |
| Citation | Presidential Decree No. 1083, s. 1977 |
| Territorial extent | Philippines |
| Signed by | Ferdinand Marcos |
| Signed | February 4, 1977 |
| Commenced | February 4, 1977 |
| Status: Not fully in force | |
The Code of Muslim Personal Laws is a legislation in the Philippines covering Muslims in the country which came into effect through Presidential Decree No. 1083 in 1977. [1]
The Code of Muslim Personal Laws, otherwise known as Presidential Decree No. 1083, was enacted by President Ferdinand Marcos on February 7, 1977. The decree was enacted upon the advice of the now-defunct Commission on National Integration since Muslims (along with non-Christian indigenous peoples) would have only been allowed to get married under their customs and traditions until 1980 as originally stipulated in the Civil Code of the Philippines. [2] The law recognized Sharia as part of the larger legal system of the country – although it only deals with Muslim customary and personal laws [3] [4] [5] and exclude criminal law.
The Code of Muslim Personal Laws covers marriage done under Islamic rites. The same also allows Muslims to avail of divorce contrary to the Family Code of the Philippines which bares most non-Muslim Filipinos from legally ending their marriage. Divorce between a non-Muslim and a Muslim is also recognized such as the divorce case of a Christian woman and a Muslim man who were married under Islamic rites which was upheld in 2016 by the Supreme Court. [6]
Under the Muslim code a husband may seek for a "perpetual divorce" from his wife or invoke li'an to end his marriage if his spouse commits adultery. The wife may seek the termination of her marriage with her husband by invoking faskh if certain conditions are met including if her spouse commits "unusual cruelty", suffers from insanity or affliction of an incurable disease, or for six consecutive months neglects family support for six consecutive months. Talaq divorce may be invoked "may be effected by the husband in a single repudiation of his wife" after totally abstaining from sexual relations with his spouse. [6]
While polygamy is allowed under the code, a Muslim man could only marry a second wife with permission of a sharia court and could still be charged with bigamy without satisfying this prerequisite. [7] Also men who had their first union made through civil marriage and subsequently marries a second woman, even through Islamic rite, could still be charged with bigamy. Converts who already has an active marriage done under non-Islamic rite cannot circumvent this law through mere conversion. [8]
Early marriage, often referred to child marriage, was permissible under the Code of Muslim Personal Laws under certain conditions. This runs counter to the Family Code of the Philippines which sets the marriageable age regardless of sex to 18 years old. The Code of Muslim Personal Laws allowed for Filipino Muslim minors of at least 15 years to get married and a Sharia court was allowed to consent the marriage of a Muslim girl as young as 12 years old who has attained puberty. [9] [10]
Child marriage in the context of Islamic tradition refers to a form of relationship involves at least one party is an adolescence who is usually at least 13 years of age rather than a child hence it is referred to as "early marriage". A Muslim girl who already had menstruation could already get married as per Islamic tradition. [11]
The provision regarding early marriage under the Code of Muslim Personal Laws was overridden by Republic Act No. 11596 or the Prohibition of Child Marriage Law which criminalized child marriage, including its facilitation and solemnization, and cohabitation of an adult with a child outside wedlock. The legislation was signed into law by President Rodrigo Duterte in December 2021. [12] [13]
Under the Code of Muslim Personal Laws, five Shari'ah District Courts were established in the Philippines, all of which has territorial jurisdiction over areas in Mindanao. [14] The Shari'ah District Court is roughly equivalent to the Regional Trial Court in the regular and secular Philippine court system. [3]
The Code of Muslim Personal Laws allows for select localities in Mindanao to observe Muslim legal holidays. It also has a provision which would allow Muslim government employees outside these areas to excuse themselves from work. [15]
Divorce is the process of terminating a marriage or marital union. Divorce usually entails the canceling or reorganising of the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage, thus dissolving the bonds of matrimony between a married couple under the rule of law of the particular country or state. It can be said to be a legal dissolution of a marriage by a court or other competent body. It is the legal process of ending a marriage.
Legal separation is a legal process by which a married couple may formalize a de facto separation while remaining legally married. A legal separation is granted in the form of a court order. In cases where children are involved, a court order of legal separation often makes child custody arrangements, specifying sole custody or shared parenting, as well as child support. Some couples obtain a legal separation as an alternative to a divorce, based on moral or religious objections to divorce.
Annulment is a legal procedure within secular and religious legal systems for declaring a marriage null and void. Unlike divorce, it is usually retroactive, meaning that an annulled marriage is considered to be invalid from the beginning almost as if it had never taken place. In legal terminology, an annulment makes a void marriage or a voidable marriage null.
In a culture where only monogamous relationships are legally recognized, bigamy is the act of entering into a marriage with one person while still legally married to another. A legal or de facto separation of the couple does not alter their marital status as married persons. In the case of a person in the process of divorcing their spouse, that person is taken to be legally married until such time as the divorce becomes final or absolute under the law of the relevant jurisdiction. Bigamy laws do not apply to couples in a de facto or cohabitation relationship, or that enter such relationships when one is legally married. If the prior marriage is for any reason void, the couple is not married, and hence each party is free to marry another without falling foul of the bigamy laws.
Freedom of religion in the Philippines is guaranteed by the Constitution of the Philippines.
Divorce according to Islamic law can occur in a variety of forms, some initiated by a husband and some by a wife. The main categories of Islamic customary law are talaq, khulʿ and faskh. Historically, the rules of divorce were governed by sharia, as interpreted by traditional Islamic jurisprudence, though they differed depending on the legal school, and historical practices sometimes diverged from legal theory.
A husband is a man involved in a marital relationship, commonly referred to as a spouse. The specific rights, responsibilities, and societal status attributed to a husband can vary significantly across different cultures and historical periods, reflecting a global perspective on this role.
Divorce law, the legal provisions for the dissolution of marriage, varies widely across the globe, reflecting diverse legal systems and cultural norms. Most nations allow for residents to divorce under some conditions except the Philippines and the Vatican City, an ecclesiastical sovereign city-state, which has no procedure for divorce. In these two countries, laws only allow annulment of marriages.
In Israel, marriage can be performed only under the auspices of the religious community to which couples belong, and inter-faith marriages performed within the country are not legally recognized. However, marriages performed abroad or remotely from Israel must be registered by the government. Matrimonial law is based on the millet or confessional community system which had been employed in the Ottoman Empire, including what is now Israel, was not modified during the British Mandate of the region, and remains in force in the State of Israel.
The Goa Civil Code, also called the Goa Family Law, is the set of civil laws that governs the residents of the Indian state of Goa. The Goan civil code was introduced after Portuguese Goa and Damaon were elevated from being mere Portuguese colonies to the status of a Província Ultramarina. The Goan civil code is a Indianised variant of the Portuguese legal system that draws largely from the Napoleonic Code, a common legal system in a number of Continental European nations. Indian law mostly derives from English common law that was formulated and applied in British India, and remains pegged to developments in the "Charter of the British Commonwealth". With a number of amendments, following the Partition of India, Indian laws as a whole, have religion-specific civil codes that separately govern adherents of different religions; and also has caste reservations. Goa and Damaon are an exception to that rule, in that a single code governs all the native Goans and the native Damanese of Damaon, Diu & Silvassa, irrespective of affiliation to religion, ethnicity and social strata. The English translation of the civil code is available on the Government of Goa's e-Gazette dated 19/10/2018.
The Hindu Marriage Act (HMA) is an act of the Parliament of India enacted in 1955. Three other important acts were also enacted as part of the Hindu Code Bills during this time: the Hindu Succession Act (1956), the Hindu Minority and Guardianship Act (1956), the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act (1956).
Under civil law, Nigeria does not recognize polygamous unions. However, 12 out of the 36 Nigerian states recognize polygamous marriages as being equivalent to monogamous marriages. All twelve states are governed by Sharia law. The states, which are all northern, include the states of Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Niger, Sokoto, Yobe, and Zamfara which allows for a man to take more than one wife.
The legal status of polygamy varies widely around the world. Polygyny is legal in 58 out of nearly 200 sovereign states, the vast majority of them being Muslim-majority countries. Some countries that permit polygamy have restrictions, such as requiring the first wife to give her consent.
The Law of Nigeria consists of courts, offences, and various types of laws. Nigeria has its own constitution which was established on 29 May 1999. The Constitution of Nigeria is the supreme law of the country. There are four distinct legal systems in Nigeria, which include English law, Common law, Customary law, and Sharia Law. English law in Nigeria is derived from the colonial Nigeria, while common law is a development from its post-colonial independence.
Divorce is a contentious issue for the Philippines, which has a predominantly Catholic population. It is not typically legally available to Filipino citizens, and annulment is the usual legal alternative. The Muslim Personal Code, however, allows for divorce for couples who got married through the Islamic rite under specific circumstances. The Philippines is often cited as the "only country in the world" where divorce is illegal, aside from the Vatican City after Malta had divorce legalized in 2011.
Sharia means Islamic law based on Islamic concepts based from Quran and Hadith. Since the early Islamic states of the eighth and ninth centuries, Sharia always existed alongside other normative systems.
The legal system in the United Arab Emirates is based on civil law, and Sharia law in the personal status matters of Muslims and blood money compensation. Personal status matters of non-Muslims are based on civil law. The UAE constitution established a federal court system and allows all emirates to establish local courts systems. The emirates of Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Ras Al Khaimah have local court systems, while other emirates follow the federal court system. Some financial free trade zones in Abu Dhabi and Dubai have their own legal and court systems based on English common law; local businesses in both emirates are allowed to opt-in to the jurisdiction of common law courts for business contracts.
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