Academic literature on the topic 'Moroccan family law'

This Morocco-focused study was conducted to assess access to justice for women regarding the implementation of the Moudawana. Its aims are firstly to provide original evidence, notably through field research, about discrepancies in access to justice for women as a disadvantaged group, and to contribute to the ongoing literature tracking women's rights throughout the political development of Morocco and North Africa. The research presents a reflective insight into accessing justice in Morocco for women through a focus on the accessibility and performance of the formal justice system and disparities in the implementation of the law in urban vs. rural settings, whereby the urban sample is the capital region Rabat-Sale-Kenitra and the rural one is Draa-Tafilalt. The particular role of the formal justice system, which I also refer to as the 'justice system' or 'judicial system' is emphasised throughout this dissertation as both an arena in which barriers to full implementation exist and one that could be greater utilised in the pursuit of justice for all women. This research addresses also the role informal justice plays as a dispute resolution forum in rural Morocco, but the primary focus of the empirical research is tailored to the formal system due to the scarcity of information regarding informal justice and the capacity for greater oversight of the effective implementation therein. There is a need to better understand its impact on women because the courts can help alter (or entrench) social norms as well as place limits on government action and create opportunities for women's social and legal empowerment. This thesis examines these two issues of accessibility and performance from a supply perspective and the impact of the demand because the two exist in a cyclical relationship. Therefore, its main contribution is to advance the arguments that accessibility and performance of a fair and impartial justice system is key to ensuring women's access to justice, and that by empowering women to utilise this system and the laws in place for their protection, access to justice can become a reality. Therefore, it is imperative to rethink implementation of the existing family law so that it becomes applied to both formal and informal justice systems. Despite the presence of constitutional provisions and a legislative framework regarding access to justice, ground realities reveal that the implementation of such laws as well as providing wider access to justice for women is marred by institutional and social discriminatory practices. Women feature prominently among groups with unequal access to the justice system. In addition to state-sponsored or condoned discrimination against women, women are marginalised from the justice system because injustices against women are much 2 more likely to occur in private than injustices against men. In Morocco, women's access is constrained when compared with men because of relatively less control of the economic assets needed to navigate justice sector services as well as restrictive social norms that discourage them from filing cases and complaints. These norms are more pronounced in rural regions of the country. My field research demonstrated that any possible discussion of women's access to justice ought to deal with two primary issues: how formal justice is defined for women, and what context has to exist for justice to be realised. This thesis highlights the fact that there is a complicated interaction of different layers that contribute to providing access to justice for women in Morocco. The pluralistic Moroccan political, legal, and social fields inform this legislation, the often disparate way it is applied, and the social realities facing women who seek its protection. One conclusion unveiled is that, while justice sector institutions and the services they provide should be tools for women to challenge constraining social norms and discriminatory practices, the Moroccan formal justice system tends to perpetuate these challenges and this especially applies to rural areas, particularly given that disciplinary action against bias and discrimination is weak. Finally, there is the unseen layer or social context, whereby any equal protection by the legal system might fail to protect the rights of women because of a discriminatory culture and customary practices. The data from the fieldwork also suggest that women's perceptions of the formal justice system are negative in the presence of discriminatory institutional practices and societal norms. This thesis concludes that any reform of the formal justice system will be more successful if based upon an understanding of the barriers to access to justice specific to women. The local body of knowledge is rather poor regarding the area under discussion, however, especially in rural Morocco. Only a few small-scale empirical research studies about the accessibility of justice exist and there are very few published articles on the subject. A distinct conclusion is that legal and social empowerment can provide wider access to justice in Morocco for disadvantaged groups such as women, if coupled with strengthening the formal justice machinery to enhance women's confidence in the Moroccan judicial system as a fair and impartial adjudicator of family disputes. The research underscores the transformative power of the law when the justice mechanisms apply their legal obligations with impartiality, integrity, and universal standards.

The dissertation solves the empirical puzzle why similar regimes such as Morocco and Jordan vary in their engagement in family law reform between 1999 and 2013. Differences with respect to family law reform in the two monarchies are threefold: the way the reform processes were carried out, the content of the new family codes that were issued in Morocco in 2004 and in Jordan in 2010, and the way the laws were applied. Using Pierre Bourdieu's theory of practice as a theoretical framework the dissertation establishes the links between the designs of the legal systems, how reform processes are carried out, the family laws countries end up with, and the way the laws are applied. French and British colonialism had shaped the legal systems of Morocco and Jordan to different degrees, producing a legal system that was unified after independence in Morocco whereas the Jordanian one continued to be divided into regular and religious courts. As a result, Moroccan family courts are less autonomous and more subjected to political decisions than Jordanian sharia courts. The institutional design of both judicial systems affected how family law reform was carried out because those systems contain biases towards different actors who are seen as competent of reforming family law and thus came to influence the reform process. The different access criteria to the juridical fields promote different types of cultural capital, so that actors participating in the process have different preferences regarding the development of the content of family law. In Jordan, the absence of the Jordanian king allowed the sharia court administration to exploit the structural bias in its favour and come to dominate both the process and content of family law reform. For this reason the 2010 Jordanian family law reflects to a lesser extent the demands of women's groups. The absence of the Jordanian king from the reform process demonstrates that change in authoritarian states is not necessarily imposed from above nor is it predetermined from the beginning. The Jordanian reform process saw little engagement from the top-level of the regime and could be classified as a mid-level process. It was led by a government body, the sharia court administration, which however enjoyed relative autonomy from the upper echelon of the regime. By contrast, the Moroccan family law reform was a textbook example of authoritarian politics, the reform being imposed from above and the king playing a leading role during the process. In contrast to the process and content of reform, the application of the reformed law in Morocco challenges the notion of the omnipotent authoritarian regime. While the monarch could impose legislative change, the state is at best partially able to enforce this very law or to impose a consensus over its interpretation. The designs of the legal systems again had an impact here. International law occupies different places in the Moroccan and Jordanian constitutions: Jordanian sharia courts enjoy greater autonomy, reject international law, and thus were able to resist its intrusion.

Le 5 février 2004, le nouveau code marocain de la famille est entré en vigueur après avoir été voté à l'unanimité par le parlement. Cette réforme constitue un évènement majeur dans l'histoire du Maroc et une expérience pionnière qui commence à servir de modèle au niveau du monde arabe et musulman ; elle a suscité au sein de la société marocaine un véritable bouleversement car il était impensable de toucher à la Moudawana. Les discriminations et les inégalités envers les femmes et les filles dans l'ancien texte ont été justifiées par un renvoi aux prescriptions du fiqh classique souvent incompatibles avec la réalité sociale. Pour consacrer le choix moderniste et démocratique d'une société en mouvement, le législateur marocain a du désacraliser cette matière pour répondre aux exigences de la modernité et sauvegarder la stabilité de la cellule familiale. La réforme à une base musulmane mais elle s'ouvre à des changements de société en renonçant à tous les concepts qui portent atteinte à la dignité et à l'humanisme de la femme et en apportant des garanties fondamentales pour renforcer la protection juridique, judiciaire et administrative de l'institution familiale. Le nouveau code de la famille apporte également un changement pour les marocains résidant à l'étranger qui, sous l'ancienne Moudawana, se trouvaient dans des situations juridiques boiteuses. La réforme diminuera les occasions de conflits dans les relations maroco-européennes sans les évincer totalement car l'attachement à certaines règles de droit musulman risque de paraître comme un facteur d'opposition entre un système religieux et un système laïc<br>On 5 February 2004, the new Moroccan Family Code came into force after being unanimously voted by the Parliament. This reform is a major event in the history of Morocco and a pioneering experience which begins to serve as a model in the Arab and Muslim worlds. It caused within Moroccan society a radical change because it was unthinkable to touch the Moudawana. Discrimination and inequality against women and girls in the former text have been justified by reference to the rules and laws of classical fiqh which often incompatible with social reality. To establish the modernist and democratic choice in a changing society, the Moroccan legislator desacrilizes this subject to meet the demands of modernity and safeguard the stability of the family unit. The reform has a Muslim base, but it opens itself to changes in society by renouncing all concepts that undermine the dignity and humanity of women and by providing basic guarantees to strengthen the legal, judicial and administrative protection of the family institution. The new Family Code also brings a change for Moroccans living abroad who were, under the old Moudawana, found in weak legal situations. The reform will reduce opportunities for conflicts in the Moroccan-European relations but without completely removing them because the attachment to certain rules of Islamic law may seem like an opposition factor between a religious system and a secular one

Morocco is oftentimes praised by academics, development workers, and women’s rights activists as a trailblazer for the empowerment of women in the Middle East and North African region. Its reforms in the realm of family legislation and progress made in human development place the country at the helm of liberalising Arab Muslim-majority societies, even more so after the Arab Spring and Morocco’s peaceful transition to a ‘new’ constitutional order. However, a closer look at women’s rights discourses, legal reforms, its texts and implementation, and the public attitudes towards the enhancement of women’s rights reveals a less empowering situation. The purported goals of the Family Code, as the extolled document showcasing Morocco’s attempt at ameliorating (married) women’s rights, of ‘doing justice to women’ while ‘preserving men’s dignity’ mask the reformed law’s reconsolidation of patriarchal family relations. Many legal grey areas within this particular law, as well as clashing principles emanating from other laws such as the Penal Code, allow judges and the ʿaduls (religious notaries) to exercise discretion and apply the law as they see fit and, to a large extent, as it conforms to their and the community’s vision of the ideal moral order. Moreover, because ‘doing justice to women’ affects men’s and family’s honour, the project of the enhancement of women’s rights has had as a result retraditionalisation of family relations and hierarchical gender structures. Nowhere is this more poignant than in the status of educated single adult girls from provincial areas. They may be poster girls for the development community, but they are pitied by their own communities because they fail to become complete women––married (non-employed) mothers. The story of Morocco’s professed progress is a story of empowering its citizens, but one which does so on paper only. It is also a story which hides the salient details of poorly written reformed laws, obstructed access to justice, continuing widespread misogyny, material poverty and social marginalisation, and cohesive socio-economic programmes, which are rarely followed through.

La consécration de la notion juridique de couple par la loi du 15 novembre 1999 a permis la reconnaissance de nouvelles formes de conjugalité au sein du Code civil. À la famille légitime autrefois valorisée par le Code napoléon succède une famille constituée d’un couple, marié ou non, de sexe différent ou de même sexe. Si la reconnaissance de l’autonomie de la notion de couple émanait d’une volonté d’adaptation du droit aux faits et nouvelles valeurs de la société, la reconnaissance par le législateur en 2013 du mariage entre personnes de même sexe atteste d’un processus en cours de dématrimonialisation du droit de la famille. Il a semblé utile de mettre en perspective l’évolution qu’a connu le droit français en la matière. À cet égard, l’approche comparée permet de révéler les contradictions et les atouts des conceptions renouvelées du couple et de la famille. Surtout, elle permet d’ouvrir sur une autre manière de concevoir les rapports familiaux, particulièrement au sein du système juridique marocain qui connaît nombre de transformations sociales. L’attention n’a que trop été portée sur les divergences entre les systèmes juridiques occidentaux et les systèmes d’inspiration islamique en matière familiale, sans s’intéresser à leurs causes profondes. Une telle attitude éloigne de la démarche comparative et favorise une réception à sens unique d’un système juridique par l’autre. Le choix du Maroc comme pays de comparaison n’est pas fortuit. Ce dernier a procédé en 2004 à la réforme du droit de la famille en portant une attention particulière à l’exigence d’égalité. Tout le défi pour le législateur est de nouer avec la modernité en adaptant le droit aux évolutions de la société, dans le respect du fondement du système politique et social : l’Islam. L’étude des droits de la famille des deux systèmes juridiques n’a pas pour objet leur rapprochement car les réponses apportées à la question familiale ne sont pas les mêmes. Pour autant, l’individu demeure au cœur de la réflexion, et le droit est appelé à assurer sa fonction classique d’organisation de la société. Il s’agit davantage, dans ce travail, de construire un pont pour favoriser une communicabilité entre deux systèmes juridiques différents<br>The consecration of the legal notion of couple by the law of November 15th, 1999 allowed the recognition of new forms of conjugality within the Civil code. To the legitimate family formerly valued by the Napoleonic code succeeds a family constituted by a couple, married or not, by a different or same-sex sex. If the recognition of the autonomy of the notion ofcouple emanated from a will of adaptation of the law to the facts and the new values of the society, the recognition by the legislator in 2013 of the marriage between same-sex people attest of an ongoing process of dematrimonialization of the family law. It seemed useful to put in perspective the evolution which knew the French law on the subject. In this respect,the compared approach reveals the contradictions and the assets of the conceptions renewed of the couple and the family.Especially, she allows to open on another way of conceiving the family relationships, particularly within the Moroccan legal system which knows number of social transformations. The attention had too much concerned the differencesbetween the western legal systems and the systems of Islamic inspiration in family subject, without being interested in their underlying causes. Such an attitude takes away from the comparative approach and encourages a one-way reception of a legal system by the other one. The choice of Morocco as country of comparison is not fortuitous. The latter proceeded in 2004 to the reform of the family law by paying a particular attention on the requirement of equality. All the challenge for the legislator is to set with the modernity by adapting the right to the evolutions of the society, in the respect for the foundation of the political and social system: the Islam. The study of the rights of the family of both legal systems has not for object their rapprochement, because the answers brought to the family question are not the same. However, the individual remains at the heart of the reflexion, and the rule of law is called to assure its classic function of organization of the society. It is more a question, in this work, of building a bridge to favor a communicability betweentwo different legal systems

Le droit de la famille constitue un sujet très sensible dans les pays musulmans et donne lieu à une controverse récurrente, principalement structurée autour des pôles islamique et féministe. C’est le cas au Sénégal et au Maroc où l’option retenue par le législateur - qui vise à renforcer les droits des femmes dans le cadre d’un texte cherchant à concilier impératifs islamiques et injonction à la modernité - est loin de faire l’unanimité. En prenant les débats sur le droit de la famille comme point de départ, ce travail se propose - à partir d’une analyse croisant action publique et sociologie politique du droit - de voir comment l’Etat cherche à réguler l’intime pour s’affirmer comme entreprise totale de domination dans un contexte marqué par un fort pluralisme normatif. La comparaison par contrastes dramatiques permet de centrer l’analyse sur le différentiel de capacité et de légitimité des Etats marocain et sénégalais pour mieux saisir le processus différencié d’institutionnalisation de l’Etat au sud. Dans les deux cas, l’Etat cherche à tirer avantage de la controverse en jouant sur les différents systèmes normatifs et en impliquant l’ensemble des acteurs qui le reconnaissent comme arbitre légitime, ce qui lui permet de conserver le pouvoir déterminant de la mise en forme juridique. Afin de pallier les difficultés d’application du droit, l’Etat s’appuie également sur les acteurs non étatiques pour le diffuser, ce qui confirme le caractère co-produit de la politique du droit de la famille. Si le droit étatique ne constitue pas la norme unique mais une norme mobilisable parmi d’autres, il contribue néanmoins à l’orientation des schèmes de perception et d’action des individus et renforce ainsi la prétention de l’Etat à constituer l’autorité politique ultime<br>In Muslim countries, Family Law is a highly sensitive matter, which generates recurrent controversy, mainly polarised around Islamic and feminist positions. This is, for instance, what can be observed in Senegal and Morocco. In both countries, the legislator tried to mediate this tension by strengthening Women’s Rights within a text that conciliates Islamic imperatives and injunction to modernity. But this solution is far from receiving unanimous support.Taking the Family Law debate as a starting point, this work combines public policy studies and political sociology of law to analyse how the State tries to regulate the intimate sphere in order to be viewed as the sole domination apparatus within a context of strong normative pluralism. The comparison between the Moroccan and the Senegalese States - a comparison based on ‘dramatic contrasts’- allows to focus the analysis on the differences between the Morocco and Senegalese states in terms of capacity and legitimacy, and thus helps us in better understanding the specificity of state-institutionalisation processes in developing countries.In both cases, the State tries to take advantage from the controversy. It plays on the different normative systems and involves all the actors who acknowledge it as the legitimate arbitrator in order to keep and consolidate its power of law framing. Furthermore, in order to overcome the difficulties linked to law enforcement, the State relies on non-state actors to apply the law. This evidences and confirms the fact that Family Law is the result of a process of co-production. Even if State jurisprudence does not constitute the only normative order, but one amongst others, it nevertheless importantly influences individual behaviour on both the cognitive and the experiential levels. It thus reinforces the State’s pretention to constitute the ultimate political authority

Les conventions franco-marocaines du 5 octobre 1957 et du 10 août 1981 constituent le socle de la coopération bilatérale entre les États français et marocain en matière familiale internationale. Négociées il y a plusieurs décennies, elles ont pour objectif de garantir aux ressortissants des deux États l’application de leur statut personnel sur le territoire de l’autre État et de mieux assurer la protection des enfants et des créanciers d’aliments. Ces conventions se sont toutefois heurtées à l’hétérogénéité des ordres juridiques français et marocains. L’européanisation croissante du droit international privé de la famille invite à s’interroger sur la place laissée par les droits européens aux conventions bilatérales franco-marocaines. L’applicabilité des conventions franco-marocaines est mise à l’épreuve par l’emprise croissante des règlements européens de droit international privé articulés aux conventions de La Haye. L’enchevêtrement des normes applicables conduit alors à examiner les solutions permettant d’articuler les sources entre elles. Dans les hypothèses où elles demeurent applicables, les conventions franco-marocaines sont là encore soumises aux droits européens. L’influence des droits européens peut alors servir les objectifs conventionnels et porter les conventions franco-marocaines vers plus d’efficacité, ou alors infléchir les obligations bilatérales lorsque les valeurs européennes se trouvent mise en cause<br>The French-Moroccan agreements of October, 5th 1957 and August, 10th 1981 establish the base of the bilateral cooperation between French and Moroccan States in the field of private international family law. Negotiated several decades ago, they have for objective to guarantee to the nationals of both States the application of their personal status on the territory of the other State and to insure the protection of the children and the maintenance creditors. These conventions however came up against the differences existing between the French and Moroccan legal orders. The increasing Europeanisation of the private international family law invites to wonder about the place left by European laws for the application of the French-Moroccan bilateral agreements. The applicability of the French-Moroccan conventions is put to a test by the increasing influence of the European regulations articulated with the Hague Conference’s conventions. When they are applicable, the French-Moroccan agreements are submitted even there to European laws. Then, the influence of European law can serve the conventional objectives and carry the French-Moroccan agreements towards more efficiency, or bend the bilateral obligations when the European values are questioned