Annulment of Marriage for Incompetence: A Comparative Study

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the problem of having only one and whole stipulation in the Personal Status Law which regulates the annulment of marriage for incompetence reasons, whereby the Law does not address most provisions of this matter. In case of no stipulation the Law also refers judges and researchers to consider the strongest evidence from Islamic Sharia, which is a difficult task, if not impossible. This has made provisions related to this matter unclear in the minds of most judges, advocates and researchers. Therefore, to tackle this problem, and using the inductive, descriptive and analytical method, whenever required, the researcher collected the provisions of this matter from reliable and approved Fiqh sources, indicating how such provisions are dealt with in some Arab laws, appropriate to the Yemeni context. Also, the researcher made a comparison and weighting between the opinions of Fiqh doctrines concerning competence in marriage. In conclusion, the study indicated that the required trait between spouses should be (religion) Islam only. The study recommended the amendment of Yemeni Personal Law so as to include some provisions on competence, and to explain the trait Islam which means the husband should observe regular Islamic rituals, including performing prayers, fasting and Zakat, as well as non-committing major sins. Keywords: Marriage bond, Competence, Annulment of marriage.