The Religious Character of Divorce and Legal Separation Before the Supreme Court

Under Moroccan private international law, divorce and legal separation of foreigners in Morocco are governed by Article 9 of the D.C.C., which refers to their national law. During the Protectorate and early independence, combined with Article 394 of the former civil procedure code, this led Moroccan courts to defer jurisdiction to ecclesiastical authorities when the foreigner's personal law imposed religious formalities. Some decisions even invoked foreign public policy to justify non-competence. The author examines how this created tensions between religious requirements and secular judicial procedures, particularly concerning the distinction between substantive and formal rules.