L'évolution du statut personnel de la femme au Maroc a connu ces dernières années une évolution importante, en effet, en 2004 un code de la famille a été adopté et remplace l'ancienne moudawana. Des innovations substantielles ont été adoptées consacrant le principe d'équité entre l'homme et la femme. Ainsi, l'âge du mariage a été fixé à 18 ans pour les deux sexes, la règle de l'obéissance de l'épouse à son mari est abandonnée, l'abandon de la tutelle, en effet, dans les nouveaux textes, la femme n'a plus besoin de tuteur (wali) pour se marier, la polygamie, a également été rendu quasiment impossible, placée sous un strict contrôle judiciaire pour des situations exceptionnelles, elle implique l'accord de la première épouse. Le divorce est un droit reconnu aux deux époux sous le contrôle judiciaire. Le nouveau code de la famille est venu rétablir l'équilibre au sein de la famille. Cette réforme du droit de la famille au Maroc a été élaborée sous l'impulsion du Roi Mohamed VI avec le souci de se conformer aux traités internationaux signés par le Maroc, dans le respect des traditions culturelles marocaines fondées sur le droit musulman. Néanmoins, le Maroc n'est pas le seul Pays à avoir réformé son droit de la famille, l'Algérie (en 2005) et l'Egypte (en 2000) ont également procédé à la réforme de leur droit de la famille mais dans une moindre mesure que le Maroc. C'est pourquoi, l'étude du statut personnel marocain sera abordé en premier lieu parce qu'il constitue l'exemple même d'une législation qui a incorporé des règles de la doctrine traditionnelle dans une enveloppe moderne / The evolution of the personal status of the woman in Morocco knew these last years an important evolution, indeed, in 2004 a code of the family was adopted and replaces the moudawana old. Substantial innovations were adopted dedicating the principle of equity between the man and the woman. So, the age of the marriage was fixed to 18 years for both sexes, the rule of the obedience of the wife to her husband is abandoned, the abandonment of the guardianship, indeed, in the new texts, the woman needs no more guardian ( wali ) to get married, the polygamy, was made also almost impossible, placed under a strict judicial review for exceptional situations, she implies(involves) the agreement of the first wife. The divorce is a law recognized by both spouses under the judicial review For exceptional situations, she implies the agreement of the first wife. The divorce is a law recognized by both spouses under the judicial review. The new code of the family came to restore the balance with in the family. This reform of the right of the family for Morocco was elaborated at the instigation of King Mohamed VI with the concern(marigold) to conform to the international treaties signed by Morocco, in the respect for the Moroccan cultural traditions based(established) on the right Muslim. Nevertheless, Morocco is not the only Country to have reformed its law of the family, Algeria (in 2005) and Egypt (in 2000) also proceeded to the reform of their law of the family but to a lesser extent that Morocco. That is why, the study of the Moroccan personal status will be approached first of all because he constitutes the example of a legislation which incorporated rules of the traditional doctrine into a modern envelope

<p>Sharia or western equality?</p><p>women</p><p>in Egyptian legislation</p><p>The Islamic law (Sharia) in most of the countries in Middle East and North Africa has been the basis for modern laws which regulate issues such as marriage, divorce and inheritance. These laws (personal status law or family law) have been debated frequently in the last decades.</p><p>There are those who consider personal status law (PSL) as unjust, male-biased and discriminating against women especially in the issue of divorce. On the other hand there are voices who call to go back to the Sharia, because muslims has to follow the islamic law and its values, they are universal as they claim. In this essay I try to enlighten these two points of view which can be found in the debate in Egypt. A country witch was first among the Arabic countries to adopt a modern jurisprudence.</p><p>Despite several reforms in personal status law (PSL) in the last 80 years women groups and international organisations consider that there are much more to be done.</p><p>This essay gives a historical background of Islamic jurisprudence, its development and islamic political ideas behind Sharia. It also describes PSL with divorce in focus.</p>

Surrogacy is a contemporary and highly controversial social issue. It is closely linked to assisted reproduction, bioethics and the status rights of the individual. It is generally considered an alternative, extreme way to treat infertility, but it raises a number of moral, ethical and legal issues. Solutions are approached by individual states on individual bases, in the context of cultural, historical and religious values and traditions professed by their societies. This work deals with the comparison of individual national views on surrogacy, which are reflected in the legislation. It compares the German, French and Spanish regulations, as a representative sample of restrictive approaches and the British and Ukrainian regulations, which in turn reflect the supportive attitude toward surrogate motherhood. The dynamic development experienced by the legislation on surrogacy in Portugal is highly interesting. The ruling of the Portuguese Constitutional Court provides valuable insight into the current thinking of the democratic rule of law on surrogacy and its adjustment to meet the standard of human rights protection. The work also describes the dangers posed by cross-border surrogacy using relevant case law, especially with regard to the protection of the best interests of the surrogate child. It...

This study offers an interpretation of political change in Israel through an examination of amendments to Israel's personal status laws (PSLs) - ""laws governing marriage, divorce, death, inheritance, and adoption. I found that separate ethno-religious groups, including Arab Muslims, non-Western Jews, and non-religious persons (including some secular Jews), do not enjoy equal access to the civil right of marriage and divorce that citizens commonly enjoy within other Western liberal nations. Marriage and divorce within Israel are only accessble through, and sanctioned by, religious institutions. I argue that Israel's PSLs reflect a significant paradox within liberalism, namely the inherent tension between the state's guarantee of religious rights versus the constitutional protection of citizens' civil rights. My research begins within political theory, grounded in theories of liberalism, biopolitics, nationalism, and post-colonial studies. Part one traces the history of Israel from the late Ottoman period through the founding of the State in 1948, with consideration paid both to Israel's founders (and the political Zionisms they espoused) and to political Zionism's critics (including Hannah Arendt, Isaiah Berlin, and Judith Butler). I then turn to a examination of Israel's PSLs, asking what is at stake when a liberal, democratic nation bases its laws governing marriage and divorce upon religious law rather than developing civil laws governing these institutions. Part two considers four legal arrangements caught in a crucial political paradox: laws and programs regulating the lives of women, laws outlawing polygynous marriages, changes in laws surrounding exogamous and cross-border marriages, and the treatment of Ethiopian Jews under the law. Each of these cases demonstrate the ways PSLs are used to address growing concerns over the security and national identity of the Jewish State. Through these four examples, Israel's concerns over national identity, citizenship, and security become manifest, and one important instance of the paradox of liberalism comes into focus. Ultimately, while Israel is unique as the world's only Jewish state, Israel becomes understandable as a liberal state experiencing many of the same anxieties and internal liberal problematics experienced by other states as well. / Ph. D.

This thesis explores the ways in which Islamic law and human rights interact within the work of women’s rights non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that advocate the reform of the Egyptian Personal Status Law (PSL) in the period between 2006 and 2010. The thesis shows the relevance of the human rights framework as well as the flexibility of Islamic legal discourse in the work of the NGOs. Drawing on both Islamic law and human rights enabled NGOs to develop a more gender-sensitive religious discourse, which supported their PSL reform demands. However the interaction between these two frameworks was largely affected by several important factors, which sometimes led NGOs to dilute some of their demands. These factors included the implications of the change in the form of Shari‘a as codified law under the modern nation-state; the Egyptian political context both internally and externally; the common local perception that human rights are a Western production and an extension of Western colonialism; the dominant religious but patriarchal discourse governing the PSL; the implications of activism through the NGO structure; and the personal religiosity of individual activists. The thesis explores NGOs’ PSL reform demands in depth bearing in mind these factors. It investigates NGOs’ discourse and shows its strengths and weaknesses. It shows that the interaction between Islamic law and human rights within NGOs’ work in this particular Egyptian context produced reform demands that were innovative and practically appealing on one hand, but epistemologically problematic in some instances, on another.

This thesis examines the Indian system of personal laws (‘the PLS’), under which the state applies a version of religious doctrine to the family matters of citizens whom it identifies as belonging to different religious groups. There has been a lengthy and persistent debate over the PLS, particularly in relation to its discriminatory effects upon women. However, another problem with the PLS has been little commented-upon. Supporters of the PLS emphasise its positive impact on religious freedom to such an extent that there is a pervasive assumption that the PLS is, indeed, good for religious freedom. But there has been surprisingly little critical assessment of the truth of this claim in either academic or political debates. This thesis, a work of applied normative legal theory, attempts to fill this important gap in the literature on the PLS. The thesis addresses the question of how the PLS affects one conception of religious freedom, namely religious autonomy. Its principal findings are that the PLS interferes with the religious autonomy of those subject to it by affecting their religious options (by interfering with their freedom from religion and their freedom to practice religion) and by harming their self-respect (by discriminating on the grounds of sex and religion, and by misrecognising their religious identities). Furthermore, the thesis finds that the PLS cannot be defended in the name of religious autonomy based on the possibility of exit from the system, the advantage of having the ‘option of personal law’, the power it gives people to bind their future selves, the expressive potential of the personal laws, the contribution it makes to membership in a religious community, the contribution it makes to religious group autonomy, or the recognition or validation it provides for religious identities. These conclusions imply that concerns relating to religious autonomy constitute an important set of objections to the PLS. The thesis then considers several reform proposals, including certain modifications of the PLS, a move towards a millet system, ‘internal’ reform of individual personal laws and the introduction of a Uniform Civil Code. It particularly focusses on one reform possibility – religious alternative dispute resolution – which has not been considered closely in the Indian context.

Tout semble avoir été dit sur Mayotte, les Comores et la France, or le statut juridique de ce territoire n'a pas encore livré tous ses secrets, ni épuisé tous ses effets. La problématique générale de cette thèse consiste à savoir comment ce statut juridique de Mayotte peut rendre compte de la double identité, de la double appartenance de cette île. La réponse à cette question générale se décline en deux aspects très complémentaires : 1) Peut-on penser Mayotte abritée du droit international ? La réponse à cette question est négative ; 2) Peut-on penser Mayotte uniquement par référence au droit de l'État français ? Là aussi, la réponse est négative. La thèse défendue s'illustre comme suit : elle préconise la vocation internationale du statut de Mayotte et la vocation franco-comorienne de celui-ci. La vocation internationale du statut de Mayotte part de l'idée qu'il faut, aujourd'hui, dépasser le statu quo qui préside au différend territorial entre la France et les Comores. Ce statu quo est l'expression d'un antagonisme et d'un « silence » sur les rapports entre droit interne et droit international. Ce « silence » montre une opposition entre les Comores pro-internationalistes et la France, pro-interniste. Aucun dialogue ne s'ensuit. Les solutions du droit international sont au nombre de deux : une solution stricte, par application du principe de l'uti possidetis juris, soit le rattachement du territoire de Mayotte aux Comores. Une seconde solution très innovante consisterait en l'exercice d'une co-souveraineté franco-comorienne sur Mayotte. En l'état des forces politiques, les solutions du droit international paraissent délicates à mettre en oeuvre. Aussi la thèse du maintien de Mayotte française semble devoir l'emporter, mais dans une perspective modernisée. Voilà quelle pourrait être l'issue du dialogue droit interne et droit international. La vocation franco-comorienne de Mayotte signifie que le maintien de Mayotte française doit se penser en termes de double appartenance. Le renoncement, accepté par l'État comorien, devra être accompagné d'une coopération internationale bilatérale forte. C'est pourquoi le statut mahorais doit se penser en termes de double identité. Dans ces conditions, un dialogue véritable entre l'État français et l'État Comorien sur Mayotte française serait établi. On peut penser ce dialogue durable car il ne tend à donner une satisfaction exclusive ni à l'un ou ni à l'autre des protagonistes. Autant le dialogue droit interne et droit international favorise les intérêts de l'État français ; autant le dialogue qui s'ensuit doit satisfaire les deux parties. Ainsi, afin de répondre aux interrogations soulevées par notre problématique et pour mieux les appréhender, notre étude est divisée en deux parties. La première est consacrée à la vocation internationale du statut de Mayotte. La deuxième partie présente la vocation franco-comorienne du statut de cette île. / The case of Mayotte has been extensively studied. However unresolved issues regarding the legal status of the territory persist, owing to Mayotte belonging to both the Comoros and France. This study examines how the legal status of Mayotte can reflect its double identity. To answer this question, it is necessary to envision two complementary aspects of the problem: is Mayotte immune from international law? The answer is no; does Mayotte fall exclusively under French law? Again, the answer is no. This thesis reveals the opportunity for Mayotte to define itself both as an international and as a French Comorian territory. Embracing its international vocation, Mayotte would move beyond the statu quo that stems from the territorial dispute between France and the Comoros. The current situation is the symptom of an antagonism between international and domestic law which explains the absence of discussion over the case of Mayotte. The Comoros promotes international law whereas France is in favour of internal law. There are two main international law solutions: a strict one, by the application of the principle of “uti possidetis juris”, in other words the unification of Mayotte territory with Comoros. The second solution is an innovative one which would consist in a French-Comorian shared sovereignty concerning Mayotte. Considering political forces, it does not seem easy to implement international law solutions. Also, in a modernized perspective, the thesis of maintaining a French Mayotte island is to be promoted. This could eventually be the solution of internal law and international law. French-Comorian purpose about Mayotte means that the maintaining of a French Mayotte island should be thought in terms of a double belonging. The renunciation, accepted by the Comorian state, should have to be associated with a strong bilateral international cooperation. That is why the status of Mayotte also has to be thought in terms of a double identity. In these conditions, a real dialogue can be established between France and the Comoros about a French Mayotte. Thus, long-standing talks are possible because none of the protagonists will be given exclusive satisfaction. Even though the internal law and international law dialogue encourages French interests, the dialogue which follows has to satisfy both parties. Thus, to answer the questions raised by our problematic, we have divided our study into two parts, the first one is devoted to the international purpose of Mayotte’s status and the second one deals with its French-Comorian purpose.

This thesis explores the historical development of personal status law, which governs a person’s marriage, divorce, and custody rights. It is significant because it is part of a framework that has defined women’s rights for centuries. I will argue that personal status law is a patriarchal framework that has been reinforced over time, leading up to the creation of nation-states in the Middle East. As such, this is the “institution” of personal status that will be traced using historical institutionalism theory. In this thesis I will argue that personal status has undergone a critical juncture, or crucial moment of potential to change, in both Jordan and Iraq’s founding, and that this has consequentially affected personal status law development and responses to the women’s movement throughout the 20th century in both countries. This thesis briefly reviews the role of women’s rights and the development of law in pre-Islam era, Islam and the Qur’an, and the Ottoman Empire in order to describe the institution of personal status law. Next, I review the history of Jordan and then Iraq and identify the critical juncture of personal status in historical context. In each chapter I will also explore the matter of de facto, or what women’s rights are like in practice, as an example of the institution at work in the patriarchal protection paradox.

Sharia or western equality? women in Egyptian legislation The Islamic law (Sharia) in most of the countries in Middle East and North Africa has been the basis for modern laws which regulate issues such as marriage, divorce and inheritance. These laws (personal status law or family law) have been debated frequently in the last decades. There are those who consider personal status law (PSL) as unjust, male-biased and discriminating against women especially in the issue of divorce. On the other hand there are voices who call to go back to the Sharia, because muslims has to follow the islamic law and its values, they are universal as they claim. In this essay I try to enlighten these two points of view which can be found in the debate in Egypt. A country witch was first among the Arabic countries to adopt a modern jurisprudence. Despite several reforms in personal status law (PSL) in the last 80 years women groups and international organisations consider that there are much more to be done. This essay gives a historical background of Islamic jurisprudence, its development and islamic political ideas behind Sharia. It also describes PSL with divorce in focus.

Ce mémoire traite du droit de l’adoption dans une perspective comparative entre régimes arabo-musulman, français et québécois. Dans un premier temps est abordée la place de l’enfant dans l’Islam : de sa conception au sein de la famille musulmane à l’ensemble de ses droits selon le droit religieux. Ce tour d’horizon permet d’aborder l’épineux problème de l’interdiction de l’adoption par le Coran et les alternatives qui ont été développées pour y remédier, plus particulièrement la kafala. La kafala sera expliquée et située dans l’ordre public international, puis examinée au regard de quatre législations arabes : le Maroc, la Tunisie, l’Algérie et le Liban. Dans un deuxième temps, la question sera examinée d’un point de vue occidental. Il y sera analysé la possibilité et les difficultés entourant l’application des règles musulmanes de statut personnel en France et au Québec. Finalement sera abordé l’accueil que ces deux sociétés ont réservé à la kafala dans leur système respectif. / This thesis examines adoption law in comparative perspectives between Arab-Muslim, French and Quebec legal systems. First is reviewed the position of children within Islamic law: from a child’s legal status within the traditional Muslim family, to its aggregate statutory rights within Shari’a law. This overview subsequently allows for a discourse on the ban to adopt in the Qu’ran, and the alternatives developed around this thorny issue, notably the idea of “guardianship” or “kafala”. Specifically, the Kafala is reviewed with regards to international public policy and vis-à-vis four different legislative contexts: Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria and Lebanon. Secondly, the issue is then judged from a Western perspective; discussing hitherto the problems surrounding the application of Muslim law on personal statutory rights in France, and on personal statutory rights in Quebec. Finally, this thesis considers how the latter two societies have welcomed the concept of Kafala within their respective legal systems.