Alternatives to the Sectarian Personal Status Laws: New Lebanese Conceptualizations of Secularism and Legal Pluralism in the Arab Post-Uprising Context

Abstract

Lebanon is characterized by a pluralistic personal status law (PSL) system on the basis of religion. This means that the 18 religions officially recognized by the state do not follow one civil PSL, but instead 15 different PSL codes which regulate issues such as marriage, divorce and inheritance. Due to the plurality of legal systems in this domain, the Lebanese state law can be categorized as a a system of legal pluralism. Some scholars have hailed legal pluralism as a good power-sharing mechanism that mitigates conflict in multi-cultural societies; others have criticized it as an institution that impedes national cohesion and solidarity and institutionalizes structural discrimination against women and children. Civil society actors have thus demanded the replacement and reform of the Lebanese PSL system since decades, but the calls for change have become especially loud in the last 10 years, since the outbreak of the Arab uprisings. There is nevertheless no clear concept of what an alternative, civil PSL system for the Lebanese context should look like. This study thus explores the political imaginaries of Lebanese civil society regarding the reform and secularization of the current PSL system. The research suggests that the majority of civil society actors call for the introduction of an additional civil PSL code in combination with increased state interference in the religious courts, although the actors do not agree on where the jurisdictional boundaries of religious courts should be drawn. Some of the key issues regarding this issue are mapped in this thesis, including the realization of the principle of voluntariness, state oversight over the courts and the implementation of a transitional phase. This study contributes to the fields of sectarianism, the civil state in the Arab region, legal pluralism and secularism.