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Marriage in Croatia

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Marriage in Croatia is a legally regulated union of life between a woman and a man.[1][2] Marriage is regulated by the Family Act.[3][4][5]

People dressed up as newlyweds in a carriage at the Međimurje Carnival in 2014

There are two types of ways to contract a marriage in Croatia: civil and religious.[2] The bride and groom must be of different sexes and must consent to the marriage for it to be valid. They also must be over 18 (or 16 with court approval), cannot be incapable of judgement, cannot be related and cannot already be married.

History

In medieval Europe, the prevailing understanding was that marriage is a sacrament, and it was therefore subjected to the regulation of canon law and ecclesiastical jurisdiction. The proclamation of marriage as a sacrament led to the principle of the indissolubility of the marital bond during the lifetime of the husband and wife under canon marriage law, contrary to the position of Roman law. Under earlier canon law, marriage arose from the declaration of will of the betrothed, and a church wedding was not required for its validity. However, at the Council of Trent in 1563, the decree Tametsi established that consent to marriage had to be declared before the parish priest of the residence of one of the betrothed and before two witnesses.[6]

Croatia was ruled by the Austrian Empire and followed its marriage laws. With the Josephine Marriage Patent of 1783 and the General Civil Code of 1811, civil jurisdiction over the regulation of marriage was introduced, although church weddings remained the mandatory form for contracting marriage. However, a new concordat with the Holy See in 1855 restored the Catholic Church's dominant role in marriage law, establishing mandatory religious marriage for Catholics and giving church courts exclusive authority over marital matters.[6]

When Austria-Hungary was established in 1867, Hungary revoked the concordat, and Austria reverted to the arrangement from the Josephine era. Hungary introduced mandatory civil marriage through Act 31 of 1894.[6]

An exhibition in Kumrovec showing a band performing at a 19th century peasant wedding

In 1946, the Yugoslav Constitution and the Basic Marriage Act introduced mandatory civil marriage as marriage was now required to be contracted before a competent state authority.[6]

After the Independence of Croatia, changes to marriage came about stemming primarily from the Decision of the Constitutional Court of Croatia (of 16 February 1994),[7] and subsequently from the Agreement between the Holy See and the Republic of Croatia on Legal Issues.[8] The Constitutional Court's decision struck down Article 27 of the Marriage and Family Relations Act, thereby abolishing the legal prohibition on holding a religious wedding ceremony before the marriage had been contracted before a representative of the competent state authority. Through the Agreement with the Holy See, the state effectively committed to introducing optional, rather than mandatory, civil marriage, given that a special regulation (Article 13, paragraph 1) allows religious marriage to have civil legal effects.[6]

Contracting

Marriage is contracted with the statement of consent of a woman and a man. There are two types of ways to contract a marriage: civil and religious. In the civil form, marriage is contracted in the presence of the bride and the groom, a registrar and two witnesses who must be competent adults. In a religious form, with the effects of a civil marriage, a marriage is contracted before an official of a religious community that has regulated legal relations with Croatia in this regard.[1] The law recognizes the effects of civil marriage, or of religious marriage on condition that the requirements prescribed by law were fulfilled at the time the marriage was contracted.[2]

Conditions

For the existence of a marriage the following are necessary:[1]

  1. that the bride and the groom are of different sexes
  2. that the bride and the groom have stated their consent to the contracting of marriage
  3. that the marriage in a civil form has been contracted before a registrar or that a marriage in a religious form has been contracted according to the provisions of Article 13 Paragraph 3 and Article 20 Paragraphs 1 and 4 of the Family Act.

For a marriage to be valid the following are necessary:[1]

  1. A person must be over 18 years of age, although by court decision they may also be 16
  2. A person cannot be deemed incapable of judgement, although by court decision can marry with the consent of a guardian
  3. The bride and groom cannot be blood relatives in the direct line, and in the collateral line cannot be: sister and brother, half-sister and half-brother, a child with the sister, half-sister, brother, or half-brother of their parent, or the children of siblings and half-siblings
  4. A person cannot already be in a marriage or in a same-sex life partnership

Demographics

In 2025, 17,270 marriages were contracted in Croatia while the marriage rate (marriages per 1,000 inhabitants) was 4.5. There were 5,674 divorces while the divorce rate (divorces per 1 000 inhabitants) was 1.5. The number of divorces per 1,000 marriages amounted to 328.5.[9]

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