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The Family of the Unmarried Couple

Summary/Abstract: It is my intention to analyse social characteristics of relation called common-law marriage and their family. The couple is neither registered in ecclesiastical nor civil ceremony. The focus of our intention concerns the traditional foundation of marriage through the wedding ceremony which is a specific condition for the beginnings of married life. Furthermore the paper will concentrate on the introduction of the wedding obligation and the reflections of this wedding ceremony in the legal documents. The problem stems from different evaluation of the traditional institution of the common-law marriage by the narrow village social milieu on one hand and by the state's legal system on the other hand. The existence of the family of the unmarried couple exemplifies the separation between the social norms of the traditional milieu and the legal system, i.e. the survival of a double system for evaluating social behavior even in the post-war period. The sanctions are caused by legally inadequately regulated, but still existing, traditional relationships and forms of behavior in contemporary society. In the conclusion it is stated that the status of the institution of marriage and the family of the unmarried couple is different in traditional social milieu from the one which was given to it by the legal organization of the state. Therefore the traditional population, even in the contemporary conditions of turning into new social structures, accepts legal norms still only as a necessity. The conclusion also points at the necessity of merging of traditional institutions into the framework of positive law.

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