A History of Family Law in Europe, Volume 1

Illuminates the religious roots of marriage and divorce in Europe and their divergent histories from 18th century to the present.

This edited collection investigates the religious roots of marriage and divorce in Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox nations across Europe and shows how their laws have evolved and diverged, from 1700 through to the present day.

The eighteenth century was a pivotal period for the rules governing marriage and divorce, with the authority to establish and adjudicate on them shifting from church to state. The Formation and Dissolution of Marriage, Religious Roots, and Diverging Histories evaluates these historical developments, paying particular attention to the waxing or waning influence of religious institutions, values, and norms, and asking what other proposals for reform might have been on the agenda.

As Volume 1 of A History of Family Law in Europe, this book examines how, and to what extent, marriage and divorce are regulated in the written texts of Europe’s various religious traditions. The contributors analyse each system’s teachings on marriage formation, marital impediments, and dissolubility, including ideas on the socially binding character of those precepts. Jurisdiction-specific chapters focusing on countries across Northern, Central, Southern, and Eastern Europe explore the regulation of marriage formation and dissolution in the context of religion and other cultural influences.

The Formation and Dissolution of Marriage, Religious Roots, and Diverging Histories brings together the insights of an international team of leading marriage-law scholars from across Europe, and is a significant resource for scholars of family law, legal history, and the history of religion.

Cover design by Caroline Wheeler.