Development of Legal Regulation of Actual Marriage Relations under Family Law Operated in Ukraine in the X–XXI centuries

Abstract

The scientific article investigates the historical aspects of the development of legislation that operated on the Ukrainian lands regarding the legal regulation of actual marital relations. In particular, the author determined that in Ukraine the legal regulation of actual marital relations took place already during the existence of the Greek cities-states of the Northern Black Sea region according to the norms of Roman law (institute of concubinage). From the 9th to the 20th centuries Ukrainian lands were part of different states, i.e. Kievan Rus, Russian principalities, Kingdom of Rus, Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Kingdom of Poland, Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Ukrainian Hetman state, Tsardom of Russia, Russian and Austro-Hungarian empires. Before 1917 attitude of the state in the issue of legal regulation of actual marriage relations and the legal consequences of actual marriage did not change significantly; such relations did not generate legal consequences of marriage. Legislation recognized exclusively church marriage as the sole basis for the emergence of the rights and obligations of spouses, parents and children. Only at the end of the 18th century the rights and obligations of children born in marriage and out of wedlock were partially equal as for the right to upbringing and support. Due to the changes in family law in 1917–1926 there was a replacement of church marriage into the marriage registered by the civil registration authorities as the sole basis for the emergence of the rights and obligations of the spouses. This replacement led to the partial recognition of actual marital relations (in part rights and obligations of the spouses) and the final separation of the legal status of parents and children from the presence of a registered marriage between the parents of the child (except for a short period from 1944 to 1969). Adoption of the current Family Code of Ukraine has led to the recognition of a number of legal consequences in the property and personal non-property sphere by virtue of actual marital relations, in particular as to the commonality of the property acquired in these relations, the possibility to regulate the legal regime of the property by contract, as well as the alimony and adoption rights.