„ЉУБАВ НА ПРВИ ПОТПИС“ – О МОРАЛНОСТИ БРАЧНИХ УГОВОРА
LOVE AT THE FIRST SIGNATURE – ON MORALITY OF MARITAL AGREEMENTS

Summary/Abstract: Under Serbian Civil Code (1844), prospective spouses and extramarital partners were permitted to agree on their actual and future property relations according to their needs. Serbian legislator re-introduced this possibility in 2005. The norms that regulate the proprietary consequences of marriage have thus become default rules that apply only if marital partners did not agree otherwise. This so-called renascence of marital (nuptial) agreements in Serbia raises the whole line of related legal and ethical issues: Why the couples decide to govern their property relations by the agreement? Does the possibility of the marital agreement induce the commercialization of the marriage? Do the marital agreements implant the seeds of discord in marriage, or do they jeopardize the gender equality? The author points out two possible approaches to the issue of validity of marital agreement. According to the first conception, marital agreement should be null and void by its sole nature. It is against public policy and moral, as it allegedly leads to commercialization of marriage, encourages divorce and destroys the equity of spouses (general nullity). According to the other opinion, not all marital agreements should be null and void (per se). Its potential nullity be judged from case to case.

• Details
• Contents