The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Common-Law Marriage

marital relations not formalized in the manner provided by law (see).

In the USSR, common-law marriage does not give rise to the marital rights and duties provided by legislation on marriage and the family. From 1927 through July 8, 1944, the legislation on marriage and the family of the RSFSR and other Union republics, except the Azerbaijan, Tadzhik, Uzbek, and Ukrainian SSR’s, allowed for recognition by judicial procedure of the legal force of a common-law marriage; children born of such a marriage had the same rights and duties with respect to their parents as children born of a registered marriage.

After the adoption of the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of July 8, 1944, which provided for the obligatory registration of marriage, the court was not permitted to recognize common-law marital relations that were formed after July 8, 1944. Persons who had entered into a common-law marriage before the issuance of the decree were given the right to register the marriage with an indication of the time they had been living together. In case one of the parties had died or been declared missing in action during wartime, the other party had the right to apply to the court for recognition of the dead or missing person as the spouse.

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References in periodicals archive

the federal system (120) recognize the validity of a common-law marriage

Retroactive recognition of same-sex marriage for the purposes of the confidential marital communications privilege

In their testimony to police officers investigating domestic homicides and in interviews with local journalists, killers and victims used the specific phrase that, by custom (and, in other states, by law), defined a union as a common-law marriage. Bessie Walker began her statement by explaining that "Rogers Matthews, who I was living with, for 7 years, as man and wife ..." (37) Valaria Taylor noted that she and her victim, Edward Beco, her common-law husband, "were living together at #2845 Belmont Place as man and wife." (38) Similarly, Eugene Morris, who murdered his domestic partner, told a police officer that "for the past 3 years I have been living with Hazel Long at 1734 Calliope Street, as Common-Law Man and Wife." (39)

"Bessie done cut her old man": race, common-law marriage, and homicide in New Orleans, 1925-1945

541, 551 (2006) (calling for restoration of common-law marriage); Stuart J.

Religion, polygamy, and non-traditional families: disparate views on the evolution of marriage in history and in the debate over same-sex unions

The evidence, however, does not support the presence of exploitative cohabitation (Lewis, Datta, and Sarre 1999; Law Commission 2006); instead, it suggests shared expectations rather than one party's creation of an erroneous perception of common-law marriage. At best, one might claim that some people are misinformed about the likely outcome of cohabitation and about the life-profile problem.

Marriage, cohabitation, and same-sex marriage

Family lawyer Caroline Smith said common-law marriage was not a frequently used term in Scotland.

IT'S A COMMON LAW MISTAKE; Moves to kill off urban myth

have explored elsewhere, the doctrine of common-law marriage transformed

In the shadow of marriage: single women and the legal construction of the family and the state

Waggoner's proposal accomplishes two things: it determines both who is a surviving committed partner and what the intestacy share of those individuals should be.(238) Waggoner suggests giving a surviving, committed partner a smaller share than what is given to a surviving spouse.(239) Thus, Waggoner's proposal avoids looking like a common-law marriage intestacy statute.(240) Waggoner recommends a smaller intestate portion :for surviving, committed partners "in recognition of the competing claims of the decedent's blood or adoptive relatives, and to some extent to maintain the incentive to enter into formal marriage."(241)

Respecting commitment: a proposal to prevent legal barriers from obstructing the effectuation of intestate goals

They sought the injunction on the grounds that their union qualified in Brazil as a common-law marriage.

Gay union wins residential visa for Briton

(68.) In one 1804 case, the Sala del Crimen removed scribe Francisco Santaella from office after the court substantiated an accusation that he took a gratificacion (unauthorized fee) in an case involving common-law marriage. The Ministers of the high criminal court rejected his petition to be reinstated.

Justice by paperwork: a day in the life of a court scribe in Bourbon Mexico City

There are laws governing the common-law marriage. The mere fact that a heterosexual couple lives together is not sufficient to qualify as a common-law marriage.

Estate planning strategic for unmarried couples

Plumb, Marriage: Common-Law Marriage in New York, 1 Cornell L.Q.

Governing through contract: common law marriage in the nineteenth century

A convert who had had a child out of wedlock, an abortion and a common-law marriage, she became a pacifist and philosophical anarchist who defied coercive state power but not Catholic theology.

The soul of the left