Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology

The Recognition of a Religious Ahmadi Marriage in Belgium

by Sarah Den Haese and Jinske Verhellen

Question(s) at stake

Whether a religious Ahmadi marriage can be recognized in Belgium.

Outcome of the ruling

Since there are legal consequences for an Ahmadi religious marriage in Pakistan, the Belgian court decided that the submitted marriage certificate passes the test of Article 47 of the Belgian Code of Private International Law. Hence, the marriage celebrated in Pakistan must be recognized in the Belgian legal order.

Country:

Belgium

Official citation

Court of appeal of Antwerp, Judgement of 9 March 2021, P.20.1171.N/1 (Hof van beroep Antwerpen, 9 maart 2021, P.20.1171.N/1)

ECLI:BE:CASS:2021:ARR.20210309.2N.9

Topic(s)

Keywords:

Recognition Religious marriage

Tag(s):

Ahmadi

Bibliographic information

Den Haese, Sarah; Verhellen, Jinske (2024): The Recognition of a Religious Ahmadi Marriage in Belgium, Department of Law and Anthropology, Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle (Saale), Germany, CUREDI075BE001, https://doi.org/10.48509/CUREDI075BE001.

About the authors

Sarah Den Haese (Ghent University, Belgium) ORCID logo

In 2012, Sarah Den Haese obtained her Bachelor’s degree in Social Work at the Arteveldehogeschool in Ghent. Afterwards, she commenced her studies in law at the University of Ghent from which she graduated in 2016 with great distinction. In the framework of the Erasmus exchange program, she spent one semester at the University of Helsinki. In her final thesis, she examined the role and position of children who are the victim of parental abduction. Sarah’s research interests concern private international law, (international) family law, human rights and migration law. In August 2016, she started working for the Institute of Private International Law at the University of Ghent were she is working on a PhD concerning the portability of cross-border civil statuses. Departing from the right to respect for private and family life, her research will examine whether and to what extent the human rights approach is able to reduce the negative effects of limping legal relations.

Jinske Verhellen (Ghent University, Belgium) ORCID logo

Jinske Verhellen studied Law and Anthropology. She has always combined these two disciplines in her work, both in academia and in practice (as an attorney, as a staff member of the Ghent City contact point for discrimination reports, etc.). In 2006, Jinske Verhellen had the unique opportunity to help establish the Private International Law Centre in Brussels (now part of the Agentschap Integratie en Inburgering), which gives advice and does policy work in the field of private international law in family matters. In January 2009, she returned to Ghent University, where in 2012 she obtained her doctoral degree on 'The Belgian Code of Private International Law in family matters' (financed by the Research Foundation - Flanders). Since 2014, she is Professor of Law at Ghent University, lecturing private international law, international family law and notarial private international law.

Jinske Verhellen is a member of the Ghent University Interfaculty Research Group CESSMIR (Centre for the Social Study of Migration and Refugees) and the Ghent University Human Rights Network. Since 2015, she is the President of the Diversity Commission of the Ghent Faculty of Law and Criminology and in 2020 she was asked to chair the Anti-discrimination Commission of the Ghent University.

For the CUREDI project Jinske Verhellen serves in the coordination team, the editorial board and acts as reviewer.

Jinske Verhellen has published on various aspects of private international law, international family law, migration law and nationality law (full publication list can be found here). She is currently Chief Editor of the Belgian Private International Law Journal (Tijdschrift@ipr.be / Revue@dipr.be) and a member of several editorial boards.