Kuwait moves to make premarital counseling and divorce reconciliation mandatory
. . . to protect families, property rights and legal records
Justice Minister Nasser Al-Sumait said Cabinet approval of draft amendments to the Notarization Law is aimed at strengthening family stability, protecting individual rights and modernizing notarization services.
Under the proposed amendments, couples intending to marry would be required to complete a premarital counseling programme before their marriage contract is officially registered. The programme will focus on the rights, duties and responsibilities of married life, with its content, duration and implementing authority to be determined by the Minister of Justice. The executive regulations will set out any exemptions.
The amendments would also require couples seeking to register a divorce or khul’ to first approach the Family Dispute Resolution Center to provide an opportunity for reconciliation. If reconciliation is not achieved within the prescribed period, the registration process can proceed. Final court rulings and personal status cases in which reconciliation is not permitted would be excluded.
Al-Sumait said the measures are intended to give families a genuine opportunity to resolve disputes and preserve family cohesion before separation is formally registered. The draft also requires the documentation of marriages, divorces, reconciliations and prohibited breastfeeding cases. Where documentation cannot be completed, the parties would be required to refer the matter to the judiciary to protect legal rights and lineage.
The amendments further provide for an electronic link between the Family Court Clerks’ Office and the Notary Public’s Office to automatically record final judgments concerning marriage and divorce in official notarial records. As part of the digital transformation of services, notarization would be permitted through approved electronic systems or video conferencing, in addition to in-person procedures. Controls would be established to verify identities, ensure consent and protect the integrity of the process, while specifying cases requiring personal attendance.
The proposed changes would also remove the requirement for companies to notarize incorporation documents, amendments, dissolution and withdrawal procedures at the Ministry of Justice. Responsibility for approving these documents would instead move to the Commercial Registry Unit at the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
The move is intended to simplify company procedures, avoid duplication between government entities and establish clearer arrangements for exchanging data and records between the two ministries. The Ministry of Justice will continue handling company transactions until the specialized unit begins operating under a joint decision by the Ministers of Justice and Commerce and Industry. Existing notarized documents will retain their full legal validity.
Al-Sumait said the amendments will take effect six months after publication, providing time to complete the required regulatory and technical arrangements. In a separate development, Al-Sumait said Cabinet approval of a draft amendment to Article 830 of the Civil Code is intended to protect family and housing stability while safeguarding the financial rights of property partners.
The proposed amendment addresses situations in which the division of jointly owned residential property and its sale at public auction could leave a parent or child without a suitable home, particularly when available funds are insufficient to secure alternative housing. Under the amendment, a court could, at the request of one of the partners, order the continuation of joint ownership for a specified period if the property is the partner’s sole residence and the available funds are insufficient to purchase another suitable home.
The court would take into account the family, social and financial circumstances involved. The protection would be temporary and would remain in place only while the conditions justifying it continue. Any partner could request termination of the arrangement once either condition no longer exists, maintaining a balance between housing needs and the rights of other partners.
The amendment would also allow partners involved in partition proceedings to request ownership of the share belonging to the partner seeking partition, in return for a value determined by a court-appointed expert. This would allow the requesting partner to receive fair compensation while enabling the remaining partners to retain the residential property rather than having it sold at public auction.
Al-Sumait said the draft establishes procedures for depositing the value of the share with the court within the prescribed period and addresses multiple ownership requests or failure to make the required payment. He stressed that a family home has value beyond its market price, describing it as the place where families live, children grow up and memories are created. The proposed legal protections, he said, seek to recognize that value while preserving the rights of all property partners.
