L’autonomia normativa e giurisdizionale delle confessioni religiose nel sistema degli statuti personali in Libano

A case in point to study the competition of different institutions in the production of the right people is represented by Lebanon which applies the so-called system of personal statutes. This system is characterized by the fact that, with regard to certain legal relations (essentially marriage, divorce, filiation and inheritance law), the law is not applied on a territorial basis, but on a personal basis, in this case based on membership of individuals to one of the religious communities recognized by the legislator. The latter benefit from a legislative and jurisdictional monopoly in relation to the discipline of the personal status of its faithful. This involves, on the one hand, a legal pluralism, in the sense that the law applicable to the legal relationship in question is not identical for all citizens but differs on the basis of their religious beliefs and, on the other hand, a judicial pluralism in the sense that disputes involving such relationships are not decided by state courts but by ecclesiastical courts. The purpose of this contribution is, therefore, that highlight the characteristics and limitations of the lebanese system that is unique among the Arab States of the Middle East.