Family
Personal Status Law 2022 — the first codification of Saudi family law
Family law was applied directly from fiqh until the Personal Status Law of 2022 codified marriage, divorce, custody and maintenance for the first time.
Key rules
- Jurisdiction — Personal status divisions of the general courts.
- Deadline — 30 days to appeal a personal status judgment
Governing law
- Personal Status Law 2022Royal Decree M/73
- Law of Civil Procedure 2013 — family divisions
In practice
The 2022 codification set a minimum marriage age of eighteen with judicial exception, required registration, and put custody and maintenance rules into enacted text with reasons for decisions. It also narrowed but did not eliminate male guardianship in the marriage contract. The practical significance is that a litigant can now read the rule that will be applied to them, which was not previously possible, and appeals can be argued from text rather than from competing fiqh authorities. As with the civil code, material predating 2022 describes a materially different regime.