United Arab Emirates Law and Maine Courts
The Maine Supreme Judicial Court ruled that a religious marriage ceremony conducted remotely in Dubai under Islamic law does not constitute a legal marriage under Maine law. The court determined that because the marriage took place outside Maine, its validity must be assessed under the laws of the United Arab Emirates, not Maine's statutory requirements. Since the couple did not comply with UAE legal procedures for marriage and Maine does not recognize common law marriages, the court upheld the dismissal of the divorce complaint due to the absence of a legally recognized marriage.
- ▪The marriage ceremony was conducted remotely in Dubai with a Maine-based imam officiating via video link.
- ▪No legal marriage license was obtained in the UAE or Maine, and the ceremony did not comply with statutory requirements in either jurisdiction.
- ▪Maine does not recognize common law marriage and requires statutory compliance for a marriage to be legally valid.
- ▪The court emphasized that marriages performed outside Maine are valid only if they comply with the laws of the jurisdiction where they occurred.
- ▪The plaintiff relied on statutory exceptions under Maine law, but the court ruled those provisions were not applicable to Islamic marriages.
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Foreign Law in American Courts United Arab Emirates Law and Maine Courts An interesting illustration of how American courts handle (correctly, I think) foreign marriages. Eugene Volokh | 5.1.2026 9:07 AM From last week's Maine high court decision in Aldarraji v. Alolwan, written by Justice Julia Lipe, dealing with Ms. Aldarraji's divorce complaint against Mr. Alolwan: Aldarraji argues that she and Alolwan were legally married under Maine law. Because the parties' marriage ceremony did not occur in Maine, however, the proper question in assessing the legality of the marriage is whether it was valid under the laws of the jurisdiction where the marriage ceremony occurred—here, the United Arab Emirates….
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