Morocco’s Highest Court Allows Divorce by Proxy, Changing Family Law Landscape

A jurisprudence that will make history. Based on certain conditions mentioned in the Malakite rite to which Article 400 of the Family Code refers, which a power of attorney respects, the Court of Cassation has overturned a judgment rendered at first instance and then on appeal which refused a spouse the right to be represented in divorce proceedings, reports the Arabic-language daily Assabah.

In its decision, the Court of Cassation explains that being represented in such proceedings is not new in itself. It specifies that this practice can be tolerated in certain cases: when a spouse is in a distant country or serving a long prison sentence. This is the case of the husband who wanted to obtain the divorce by being represented. He is the subject of an arrest warrant following complaints filed against him by his wife. For the latter, her husband’s absence is a way of evading his obligations, in particular the Nafaqa (alimony).