Family Law in Mauritius

The statutory backbone

• Code Civil Mauricien: the heart of family law, covering marriage and its effects, matrimonial regimes, divorce grounds and consequences, filiation, parental authority, and succession. Much of it is applied in French, and its interpretation draws on French doctrine and jurisprudence.
• Divorce and Judicial Separation Act: the procedural framework for dissolving marriages before the Supreme Court.
• Children's Act 2020: the modern framework for the protection and welfare of children, replacing earlier child-protection legislation.
• Protection from Domestic Violence Act: protection orders and related remedies.

What the case law keeps deciding

• Divorce grounds and fault. The contours of faute-based divorce and the evidential standards it demands, alongside the no-fault routes.
• Custody (garde) and the child's interest. How courts weigh the interest of the child across residence, contact, and relocation disputes.
• Maintenance (pension alimentaire). Quantification for spouses and children, variation when circumstances change, and enforcement.
• Matrimonial property. The consequences of the chosen regime, communauté or separation of property, on dissolution and succession.
• Filiation and adoption. Establishing and contesting parentage under the Code Civil's rules.

Family research is genuinely bilingual: statute and doctrine in French, procedure and many judgments in English, a combination that defeats generic AI tools entirely.

Researching family law with AI

Ask Themis a question in either language, "Quels sont les critères pour la garde alternée?" or "How do courts treat relocation requests by a custodial parent?", and it searches the Code Civil, the Acts, and 57,000+ judgments together, returning cited authorities in a memo you can file from.

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Research family law in minutes

Themis is in private beta with Mauritian practitioners. Every answer cited to the Code, Act, or judgment it comes from.