Greenland: Same-Sex Marriage Bill Passes
(June 11, 2015) As of October 1, 2015, Greenland, a semi-autonomous region of Denmark, will permit same-sex couples to marry. Lawmakers in the parliament, the Inatsisartut, approved the measure by a...
View ArticleIndonesia: Court Rejects Two Challenges to Marriage Act
(June 25, 2015) On June 18, 2015, the Indonesian Constitutional Court (Mahkamah Konstitusi) released its decisions on two petitions for judicial review of Law No. 1 of 1974 on Marriage (Marriage Law)....
View ArticleIreland: Gender Recognition Bill Passed
(July 31, 2015) On July 15, 2015, the Gender Recognition Bill 2014 was passed by the Oireachtas (Irish legislature). (Gender Recognition Bill 2014, No. 116/2014, HOUSES OF THE OIREACHTAS.) The bill was...
View ArticleUganda: Court Declares Refund of Bride-Price Under Customary Law...
(Aug. 12, 2015) Eight years after it began, a legal battle challenging the constitutionality of a customary practice of refunding the bride-price at the dissolution of customary marriages ended with...
View ArticleIndonesia: Defense Ministry Circulates Polygamy Rules
(Aug. 12, 2015) As of July 22, 2015, Indonesia’s Defense Ministry has explicitly allowed employees to enter into polygamous marriages. (Defense Ministry Permits Polygamy, JAKARTA POST (Aug. 7, 2015).)...
View ArticleIndonesia: Local Government Puts Curfew on Dating
(Sept. 10, 2015) On September 1, 2015, the Regent of Purwakarta, a region in West Java Province, Indonesia, announced a new regulation that limits the hours in which unmarried couples may date. The new...
View ArticleEuropean Court of Human Rights: Decision on Gay Marriage in Italy
(Sept. 14, 2015) On July 21, 2015, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) issued a landmark judgment concerning homosexuals and their right to marry in Italy. In the case of Oliari and Others v....
View ArticleBurma: Four “Race and Religion Protection Laws” Adopted
(Sept. 14, 2015) Four laws known collectively as the Race and Religion Protection Laws, which were submitted to the Parliament of Burma (Myanmar) in December 2014, were adopted this spring by the...
View ArticleRussia: Mandatory HIV Testing Before Marriage Proposed
(Sept. 15, 2015) On September 9, 2015, legislation aimed at establishing additional requirements for marriage registration was introduced in the State Duma (legislature) of the Russian Federation....
View ArticleVietnam: New Family Law Adopted
(Sept. 15, 2015) Vietnam’s legislature has adopted a new Law on Marriage and Family that will come into effect on January 1, 2016. The Law has 133 articles, arranged in nine chapters, and institutes a...
View ArticleHoly See: Amendments to Latin Code of Canon Law on Nullity of Marriage
(Oct. 22, 2015) On September 8, 2015, Pope Francis issued two Apostolic Letters, motu proprio (on his own initiative), in matters concerning Catholic marriage, which will enter into effect on December...
View ArticleHoly See: New Procedural Rules on Nullity of Marriage
(Nov. 4, 2015) As we previously reported (Dante Figueroa, Holy See: Amendments to Latin Code of Canon Law on Nullity of Marriage, GLOBAL LEGAL MONITOR (Oct. 22, 2015)), on September 8, 2015, Pope...
View ArticleJapan: Supreme Court States Family Name System Constitutional
(Jan. 8, 2016) On December 16, 2015, the Japanese Supreme Court held that a Civil Code provision that requires one partner of a married couple, which in practice is nearly always the female partner, to...
View ArticleChina: Two Child Policy Becomes Law
(Jan. 8, 2016) On December 27, 2015, the Standing Committee of China’s National People’s Congress (NPC) adopted a decision amending the Population and Family Planning Law. Effective January 1, 2016,...
View ArticleGuatemala: Congress Raises Marriage Age
(Jan. 11, 2016) A decree of November 2015 adopted by the Congress of Guatemala amended articles 81-84 and 177 of the country’s Civil Code on matters pertaining to the minimum legal age to marry. Under...
View ArticleEstonia: Legalization of Civil Partnerships
(Jan. 14, 2016) On January 1, 2016, the Registered Partnership Law, which had been passed by the Estonian Parliament in 2014, entered into force. The enforcement of the Law was delayed by the need to...
View ArticlePakistan: Child Marriage Bill Withdrawn
(Jan. 25, 2016) On January 14, 2016, Pakistan’s National Assembly Standing Committee on Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony met to discuss the Child Marriage Restraint (Amendment) Bill 2014....
View ArticleEgypt: Ministerial Resolution Regulating the Marriage of Egyptian Women to...
(Feb. 11, 2016) In December 2015, the Egyptian Minister of Justice issued Ministerial Regulation No. 9200 of 2015 to regulate the registration process for marriage contracts between Egyptian women and...
View ArticlePakistan: Hindu Marriage Bill Passed in Sindh Legislature
(Feb. 25, 2016) On February 15, 2016, the Provincial Assembly of Sindh passed the Hindu Marriage Bill 2016, applicable to Hindus and other non-Muslim citizens. It is reportedly the first of its kind in...
View ArticleSwitzerland: Rejection of Abolishment of Marriage Tax Penalty and...
(Mar. 11, 2016) On February 28, 2016, Swiss voters rejected by a narrow vote of 50.8% to 49.2% a referendum to abolish the marriage tax penalty in Swiss law. (Vorlage Nr. 596, Vorläufige amtliche...
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