<![CDATA[Marriage registration is essential for ensuring legal certainty and protecting family rights. However, unregistered marriages persist in Indonesia, reflecting a gap between formal law and social reality. This study examines the legal position of marriage registration, analyzes unregistered marriages through state law, Islamic law, and social norms, and develops an integrative framework for family protection. It employs normative legal research based on literature review, using statutory, conceptual, and historical approaches. Legal materials are analyzed descriptively and interpretively through legal certainty, legal protection, living law, legal pluralism, and maqāṣid al-sharīʿah. The findings show that marriage registration serves not merely as an administrative procedure but also as a means of legal proof, certainty, and protection for spouses and children. The persistence of unregistered marriages reflects interactions among state law, Islamic law, customary law, and social norms, alongside challenges in registration services and population administration. From the perspective of maqāṣid al-sharīʿah, registration supports the protection of lineage (ḥifẓ al-nasl), property (ḥifẓ al-māl), and family welfare. This study proposes a preventive–protective–corrective framework integrating legal certainty with social realities. Accordingly, registration policies should ensure accessible, responsive services that strengthen legal certainty and safeguard family rights.]]>
