Resolution in Favour of Marriage — an Oppressive Relic of the Past? The favor matrimonii Principle in Contemporary Law
Resolution in Favour of Marriage — an Oppressive Relic of the Past? The favor matrimonii Principle in Contemporary Law

Summary/Abstract: The present article undertakes the subject of favor matrimonii principle, that is, ‘favour for marriage’ in the national and canon law regulations. The principle, even though it is absent expressis verbis from contemporary legal documents, it is more and more often criticised for being an oppressive rule which deprives the human being of their freedom and imprisons them in the chains of an unwanted relationship. Resultantly, the author asks whether the favor matrimonii principle has not become a relic of the past? Does it still preserve its validity in the contemporary normative dimension? Is marriage durability of value, and is marriage treated in such a perspective in the contemporary legal dimension? The answer to those questions will be sought by reaching out to the analysis of the provisions of canon law and secular law. The analysis carried out leads to a conclusion that even though the favor matrimonii principle occurs in the analysed normative systems and it equally serves there as a protective measure, it is not, however, identically understood and its scope in each of the systems is slightly different. In canon law the favor matrimonii principle is not only a norm unequivocally defined in a regulation, but it is further reinforced by having obtained a status of a presumption of law (in dubio standum est pro valore matrimonii). The latter scope of legal protection is not envisaged for marriage in the Polish legal system.

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