Is there a CSS parent selector?

There is currently no way to select the parent of an element in CSS.

If there was a way to do it, it would be in either of the current CSS selectors specs:

• Selectors Level 3 Spec
• CSS 2.1 Selectors Spec

That said, the Selectors Level 4 Working Draft includes a :has() pseudo-class that will provide this capability. It will be similar to the jQuery implementation.

li:has(> a.active) { /* styles to apply to the li tag */ }

However, as of 2021, this is still not supported by any browser.

In the meantime, you’ll have to resort to JavaScript if you need to select a parent element.