Porodičnopravni aspekti verskih brakova
Family law aspects of religious marriages

Author(s): Ana Čović
Subject(s): Law, Constitution, Jurisprudence, Constitutional Law, Civil Law, Canon Law / Church Law
Published by: Institut za uporedno pravo
Keywords: Marriage law; Civil marriage; Church marriage; Religious revival; Canon law; Sharia law
Summary/Abstract: Getting married is an important event for all people who want to legitimize their relationship and union of life with their partner, believing that love, mutual trust and respect will last until death do them part. The conclusion of a church marriage, forgotten in the years after the Second World War, has become more and more common in recent decades as a ceremony that is accessed before or after the conclusion of a civil marriage before the competent registrar. It is often heard from newlyweds that a civil marriage is "just a registration", and a church marriage is a "joining before God" - an event whose significance and importance exceeds any entry in the municipal registry books. The state and religious communities have always been equally interested in issues related to marriage law. The Serbian Civil Code from 1844 recognized the jurisdiction of the church for marriage in Article 60, and in Article 99 it provided for the jurisdiction of church courts for the termination of marriage, including divorce. Until 1946, there were Sharia courts on the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Sharia law was also applied on the territory of Serbia for issues related to the matrimonial law of spouses of the Islamic faith. After the Second World War, with the secularization of the state, religion became a private matter for the individual - allowed, but not desirable in public. During the 1990s, religions in our region experienced a kind of revival, which was accompanied by an increase in the number of marriages that were concluded according to canon law and the religious rules of the Orthodox and Catholic churches, but also according to the rules of Sharia marriage law, which also indicates the importance of this topic today. In our country, only civil marriage produces legal effects, while in some European countries there is a possibility of choosing between civil or religious marriage, as two equal possibilities. Monitoring changes in social trends and the evolution of partner and spouse relationships is a challenge faced by all religious communities. The increase in the number of immigrants in Europe began to affect the structure and functioning of the legal systems of European countries, so the question of recognizing new forms of family in the legal systems of European countries is being raised more and more often. Since Islamic family law is the most resistant to secularization, for now it seems that a unique social model of the family will not be found in a multicultural society anytime soon. This book presents the relevant regulations from the ecclesiastical marriage law of the Serbian Orthodox Church, the Code of Canon Law and Sharia marriage law, with special reference to their effects in the state-legal sphere in our country, as well as in other European countries.

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