{
  "schema_version": "1.0",
  "id": "nepal",
  "name": "Nepal (Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal / सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल)",
  "jurisdiction_code": "NP",
  "legal_system": "mixed",
  "language": ["ne"],
  "license": "CC-BY-4.0",
  "generated": "2026-06-04",
  "summary": "Nepal is a South Asian mixed-legal-system federal democratic republic combining Hindu-Mitakshara civil-law substantive heritage (via Muluki Civil Code 2017 codifying personal-status law beyond religious-community framework) with English common-law procedural inheritance. Family-law framework operates under the Muluki Civil Code 2017 (effective 17 August 2018) — comprehensive replacement of the prior 1963 Muluki Ain. Parental authority and child custody are governed by Muluki Civil Code Part 3 Chapter 7 (arts. 119-130). The Supreme Court of Nepal is the apex court for civil and criminal matters; the Constitutional Bench of the Supreme Court operates constitutional review. Family-law matters are heard at first instance in the District Courts. Psychology profession is regulated through the Nepal Psychological Association and Ministry of Health and Population framework. Nepal is silent on 'parental alienation' as a statutory label; courts operate substantively under the welfare-of-the-child standard. Nepal is non-Hague Convention.",
  "pa_recognition_status": {
    "statutory": "silent",
    "apex_court_position": "no-apex-position",
    "professional_regulator_position": "silent"
  },
  "statutory_framework": [
    {
      "citation": "Muluki Civil Code 2017 Part 3 Chapter 7 (arts. 119-130)",
      "title": "Muluki Civil Code — Parental authority",
      "year": 2017,
      "url": "https://www.supremecourt.gov.np/",
      "relevance": "Federal Civil Code effective 17 August 2018 — comprehensive replacement of 1963 Muluki Ain. Arts. 119-130 govern parental authority and child custody."
    },
    {
      "citation": "Act Relating to Children 2018 (Bal Sambandhi Ain)",
      "title": "Act Relating to Children",
      "year": 2018,
      "url": "https://www.supremecourt.gov.np/",
      "relevance": "Federal Act on Children aligned with UNCRC obligations."
    }
  ],
  "apex_courts": [
    {
      "name": "Supreme Court of Nepal",
      "seat": "Kathmandu",
      "url": "https://www.supremecourt.gov.np/",
      "role": "Apex court for civil and criminal matters; Constitutional Bench operates constitutional review."
    }
  ],
  "professional_regulators": [
    {
      "name": "Nepal Psychological Association",
      "url": "https://www.npa.org.np/",
      "role": "Peak professional association for psychologists in Nepal."
    },
    {
      "name": "Ministry of Health and Population, Nepal",
      "url": "https://www.mohp.gov.np/",
      "role": "Federal regulator of health and allied health professionals including clinical psychology."
    }
  ],
  "anonymisation_convention": "Nepali family-court decisions are anonymised per Supreme Court practice using initials.",
  "key_developments": [
    {
      "year": 1854,
      "title": "First Muluki Ain (Old Legal Code)",
      "description": "First Muluki Ain (Old Legal Code) promulgated by Prime Minister Jung Bahadur Rana on 6 January 1854 — among the earliest comprehensive codified legal codes in Asia, codifying Hindu-Mitakshara personal-status, caste-based legal stratification, and customary practice into modern statutory form. Foundational legal-system substrate that persists in contemporary Muluki Civil Code 2017 trajectory."
    },
    {
      "year": 1963,
      "title": "Muluki Ain 1963 + Panchayat reform",
      "description": "Muluki Ain substantively rewritten 1963 under King Mahendra's Panchayat regime — abolishing caste-based legal stratification (one of the major substantive reforms of the 1963 code), codifying Hindu personal-status framework, and modernising family-law within Hindu-Mitakshara substrate. Operated as the primary civil-code framework for over 54 years until replacement by Muluki Civil Code 2017."
    },
    {
      "year": 1990,
      "title": "Nepal ratifies UN Convention on the Rights of the Child",
      "description": "Nepal ratified the UNCRC on 14 September 1990 — among the early state parties globally — framing the family-law-reform trajectory toward best-interest-of-the-child substantive doctrine within Hindu-Mitakshara-civil-law framework."
    },
    {
      "year": 1992,
      "title": "Children's Act 1992 (replaced by 2018)",
      "description": "Children's Act 1992 (2048 BS) enacted as Nepal's first major post-UNCRC child-protection statute, operative for 26 years before substantive replacement by Act Relating to Children 2018. Codified CRC-aligned principles including best-interest-of-the-child, child-protection, and juvenile-justice framework."
    },
    {
      "year": 2008,
      "title": "Federal Democratic Republic + monarchy abolition",
      "description": "Nepal abolished monarchy 28 May 2008 by Constituent Assembly declaration and became Federal Democratic Republic following 2006-2008 Constituent Assembly process. Foundational political-transition reshaping the constitutional and legal-administrative framework for subsequent family-law evolution."
    },
    {
      "year": 2015,
      "title": "Constitution of Nepal 2015 + federal structure",
      "description": "Federal Democratic Republican Constitution of Nepal adopted 20 September 2015 (Asoj 3, 2072 BS) establishing federal structure with seven provinces, three-tier government (federal/provincial/local), Constitutional Bench within Supreme Court, and codified fundamental rights including Art. 39 (rights of children). Constitution Art. 38 codifies women's rights including reproductive rights and protection from family violence."
    },
    {
      "year": 2017,
      "title": "Muluki Civil Code 2017 + criminal code reform package",
      "description": "Comprehensive Muluki Civil Code (Muluki Dewani Sahita) enacted 2074 BS effective 17 August 2018 — replaced 1963 Muluki Ain with modernised family-law provisions in Part 3 Chapter 7 arts. 119-130. Part of comprehensive 4-statute legal-reform package: Civil Code + Civil Procedure Code + Criminal Code + Criminal Procedure Code + Sentencing Act — modernising Nepal's substantive and procedural legal framework."
    },
    {
      "year": 2018,
      "title": "Act Relating to Children 2018 (Bal Sambandhi Ain)",
      "description": "Federal Act Relating to Children enacted 18 September 2018 (Asoj 2, 2075 BS) — replaced 1992 Children's Act with expanded CRC-aligned child-protection mechanisms, juvenile-justice framework, child-development standards, and explicit child-participation principles. Operates alongside Muluki Civil Code 2017 as the substantive child-welfare anchor."
    },
    {
      "year": 2018,
      "title": "Muluki Civil Code + Act Relating to Children effective + Domestic Violence Act 2008 in operation",
      "description": "Muluki Civil Code 2017 and Act Relating to Children 2018 entered into force 2018, alongside ongoing operation of Domestic Violence (Offence and Punishment) Act 2008 — establishing the substantive family-and-children's-protection statutory framework. The DV Act 2008 codifies physical and psychological violence within the family unit and operates parallel to the Civil Code family-law framework."
    },
    {
      "year": 2023,
      "title": "Pushpa Kamal Dahal third-term + NHRC + National Child Rights Council institutional framework",
      "description": "Pushpa Kamal Dahal (Prachanda) third-term presidency 2022-2024 continuing through 2023 framework. National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and National Child Rights Council institutional positions addressing PA-related issues within Muluki Civil Code 2017 + Act Relating to Children 2018 framework. Federalism implementation continuing affecting subordinate-court adjudication framework. Substantively significant Himalayan South Asian institutional jurisprudential development."
    },
    {
      "year": 2024,
      "title": "Supreme Court — welfare-of-the-child substantive register",
      "description": "Supreme Court of Nepal continues to develop welfare-of-the-child jurisprudence under Muluki Civil Code 2017 arts. 119-130 + Act Relating to Children 2018 in custody disputes including allegations of one-parent obstruction of the other-parent relationship without adopting the 'parental alienation' label as a doctrinal term. Substantive analysis within Hindu-Mitakshara-civil-law framework and constitutional Art. 39 (rights of children) framing."
    }
  ],
  "structural_findings": [
    "Nepal operates a structurally distinctive mixed-legal-system framework — Hindu-Mitakshara civil-law substantive heritage (Muluki Civil Code 2017 codifying personal-status law beyond religious-community framework) + English common-law procedural inheritance + Muluki Ain-1854-substrate. Within the South-Asian mixed-legal-system cluster.",
    "Muluki Civil Code 2017 codifies family-law in a single statute for all communities — structurally distinctive vs India's multi-community personal-status framework. Aligns Nepal with the unified-codification cluster within South-Asia (sharing the unified-codification pattern with Türkiye outside South-Asia).",
    "1854-Muluki-Ain among the earliest comprehensive codified legal codes in Asia (predating Japan's Meiji Civil Code 1898, Thailand's Civil and Commercial Code 1925, China's Republican Civil Code 1929) — places Nepal within the 19th-century-early-codification cluster.",
    "Federal Democratic Republican structure (2015 Constitution) is structurally distinctive within South-Asia in the corpus — places Nepal within the federal-South-Asian cluster (with India and Pakistan) but with three-tier government distinctive from Indian/Pakistani federal-state pattern.",
    "Post-monarchy-abolition (2008) democratic-republican transition trajectory: 1990-UNCRC-ratification + 1992-Children's-Act + 2008-Federal-Democratic-Republic + 2008-DV-Act + 2015-Constitution + 2017-Muluki-Civil-Code + 2018-Act-Relating-to-Children + 2024-Supreme-Court-welfare-of-the-child — gradual modernisation within mixed-legal framework.",
    "Constitutional Bench within Supreme Court (rather than separate Constitutional Court) places Nepal within the unified-apex-court cluster (with Bhutan, US Federal pattern) and distinct from separate-constitutional-court cluster (Germany, Korea, Taiwan, Mongolia).",
    "Non-Hague-1980-Convention status places Nepal in the non-Hague-South-Asian cluster alongside Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Maldives."
  ],
  "references": [
    "jurisdiction:india",
    "jurisdiction:bangladesh",
    "jurisdiction:bhutan",
    "evidence:cross-border-parental-abduction-and-pa-intersection",
    "evidence:childrens-rights-paramountcy-doctrine"
  ],
  "sources": [
    {
      "title": "Supreme Court of Nepal",
      "url": "https://www.supremecourt.gov.np/",
      "publisher": "Supreme Court",
      "language": "ne,en"
    },
    {
      "title": "Nepal Psychological Association",
      "url": "https://www.npa.org.np/",
      "publisher": "NPA",
      "language": "ne,en"
    },
    {
      "title": "Ministry of Health and Population",
      "url": "https://www.mohp.gov.np/",
      "publisher": "MoHP",
      "language": "ne,en"
    }
  ],
  "editorial_notes": [
    "Nepal jurisdiction sidecar v1.1 — deepened 2026-06-08 from 4 to 10 key_developments with full Muluki-Ain-to-contemporary trajectory: 1854-First-Muluki-Ain-Jung-Bahadur-Rana + 1963-Muluki-Ain-Panchayat-reform-caste-abolition + 1990-UNCRC-ratification + 1992-Children's-Act + 2008-Federal-Democratic-Republic-monarchy-abolition + 2015-Constitution-federal-structure + 2017-Muluki-Civil-Code-comprehensive-replacement + 2018-Act-Relating-to-Children-Bal-Sambandhi-Ain + 2018-Civil-Code-and-Children-Act-effective + 2024-Supreme-Court-welfare-of-the-child.",
    "Mixed-legal-system South Asian federal republic (Muluki Civil Code 2017 unified codification + Act Relating to Children 2018 + Domestic Violence Act 2008 + Constitution 2015 + non-Hague Convention).",
    "PA-recognition: silent statutory + no-apex-position + silent regulator — substantive welfare-of-the-child analysis under Muluki Civil Code arts. 119-130 + Act Relating to Children 2018 + Constitution Art. 39 without doctrinal 'parental alienation' label.",
    "Joins South-Asian + mixed-legal-system + Hindu-Mitakshara-substrate + 1854-Muluki-Ain-19th-century-early-codification-Asia + unified-civil-code-distinctive (vs India multi-community) + Federal-Democratic-Republic + three-tier-federal-government + Constitutional-Bench-within-Supreme-Court + non-Hague-South-Asian-Convention clusters within the corpus."
  ]
}