Ruling on Concluding and Documenting Electronic Marriage Contract at the Ministry of Justice in the State of Kuwait and the Controls Related to it: A Legal Jurisprudential Study
Dr Abrar Ahmed Abdullah Hadi
Associate Professor, Department of Comparative
Jurisprudence and Sharia Policy, College of Sharia
and Islamic Studies, University of Kuwait
Abstract:
This research aims to study the ruling on concluding and documenting an electronic marriage contract at the Ministry of Justice in the State of Kuwait and the controls related to it, a legal jurisprudential study. The research contained an introduction, two sections, and a conclusion that included the most important results and recommendations. The researcher used a combination of inductive, descriptive, analytical, comparative and critical approaches because it suits the content of the study and achieves its objectives. The most important results were that the Documentation Department in the Ministry of Justice in the State of Kuwait was careful to choose it by studying its project to conclude an electronic marriage contract through modern means of communication in a way that combines writing, speech, and images together through an electronic platform that it supervises, with all the elements of a marriage contract available. The correct view consists of pillars and conditions, and therefore it emphasizes the availability of two standards together, which are “the audio standard and the visual standard,” so it is not sufficient to have one without the other.
The Ministry of Endowments and Islamic Affairs has also taken precautions in issuing the fatwa related to concluding an electronic marriage contract. Since marriage is a contract and a strong covenant, for which more precautions are taken than for others, that is why the original union of the marriage contract council was true, so special conditions were stipulated for this contract, and the controls and procedures that must be available in the electronic marriage contract to avoid forgery and deception were divided into two parts. The first is the general procedures and controls that scrutinize the formal and objective elements and conditions of the marriage contract and the safety of the electronic system from hacking, deception and fraud. The second part is concerned with notaries and state systems and linking them together, and the State of Kuwait has not activated the work of the platform yet, due to the presence of obstacles preventing the implementation of the electronic marriage contract. It is amended by what was stated in Law No. 20 of 2014 regarding electronic transactions, and Authentication Law No. 10 of 2020.
The study concluded with the recommendation of legislators in the National Assembly to approve the conclusion and documentation of a marriage contract electronically, and to submit a draft law stipulating the amendment of Law No. 20 of 2014 regarding electronic transactions by adding transactions and issues related to personal status, endowments, and wills for him, and archiving contracts to ensure their retrieval in audio and video, similar to Law No. 20 of 2014 regarding electronic transactions.
Keywords: electronic transactions, personal status, legal documentation, Kuwaiti law.