Marriage Law (Austria)

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The term marriage law in Austria can mean all legal norms that apply specifically to married couples. In a narrower sense, however, this term is only used for those norms that regulate the establishment and termination of the marriage as well as the relationship between the spouses .

Legal basis

The most important regulations are

On December 10, 2009, the National Council passed the Registered Partnership Act (EPG) . It has been in force since January 1st, 2010. In tax law, in the case of pension entitlements, registered partnerships are treated as equal to heterosexual couples, and there is also the option of having a common name.

Current legal situation

The nature of marriage is defined in Austria by Section 44 ABGB , the wording of which has remained unchanged since the ABGB came into force on January 1, 1812 - for more than 200 years. In the aforementioned provision it says: "The family relationships are established by the marriage contract. In the marriage contract, two people of different sex legally declare their will to live in an inseparable community, to father children, to raise them and to provide mutual support . " Thus, the concept of marriage in Austria until 2018 still corresponded to the traditional church understanding, according to which marriage could only exist between man and woman and expressly served the purpose of procreating children.

Marriages have been mandatory civil marriages in Austria since August 1, 1938 (Section 44  ABGB ) and are therefore only valid if they were concluded in front of the registrar. Since then, church marriages have no longer any legal relevance.

According to § 93 Abs. 1 ABGB :

“The spouses have the common family name determined by them. In the absence of such a provision, they keep their previous family names. "

If a common family name is desired, the spouses can either use one of their original family names or create a new double name from both family names (or parts of them). However, a newly formed double name may consist of a maximum of two parts, which must be connected by a hyphen.

Until 2013, the man's name automatically became the common family name, unless otherwise stated (see then version of Section 93 (1) ABGB ).

The Austrian marriage law requires the spouses principle driving a common household , the joint acquisition , and joint custody (the legitimate children § 90 para. 1-3 General Civil Code , Civil Code).

The reformed Section 91 (1) ABGB requires:

"The spouses should organize their marital partnership, especially housekeeping, employment, assistance and custody, taking into account each other and the well-being of the children, with the aim of achieving a fully balanced contribution."

In principle, the spouses are free to decide how they divide up the tasks in shaping their life together, the paragraph already contained the mandate to the spouses to shape their cohabitation "amicably", to which the objective of "full balance of the Contributions ”.

Paragraph 2 states that only one of the two partners can refer to this law “in the sense of the fair redistribution of the workload”:

“A spouse can opt out of an amicable arrangement if this is not opposed to an important concern of the other person or the children or, even if such a concern exists, if the spouse's personal reasons, especially his desire to take up gainful employment, are more important. In these cases, the spouses have to seek an agreement on the reorganization of the marital partnership. "

The divorce is in addition to the annulment of the marriage and annulment of the marriage one of the ways to end the marriage. Austria regulated the divorce law in the second section of the EheG , which until 1977 was largely identical to the dEheG in Germany. Of particular practical relevance are the consequences of the divorce (in particular maintenance, division of assets), whereby it should be noted that the calculation of maintenance is partly based on fault , but the division of assets is fundamentally independent of fault. In the event of a divorce, it can in principle be assessed as fault to the detriment of a partner if he does not take part in the household, care work, child rearing or gainful employment. The specific interpretation of the content of the law is up to the divorce judge.

Legislative changes

The marriage law underwent significant changes at the end of the 1970s in the course of the family law reform under Justice Minister Broda , and in the mid-1980s. In 1999 - also as a result of the half-half campaign - the divorce law in the second section of the EheG was reformed. The Registered Partnership Act follows in 2009 .

1960s

  • Federal Act (BG) of February 17, 1960 on the reorganization of the right to adopt children (BGBl. 1960/58)
    • There is facilitation of strong adoption in which a minor child is adopted.
  • Federal Act of March 8, 1967 with the legal guardianship provisions of the General Civil Code (BGBl. 1967/122)
    • The spouses should be treated equally in terms of guardianship.

1970s

  • Federal Act of 30 October 1970 on the reorganization of the legal status of illegitimate children (BGBl. 1970/342)
    • The status of the illegitimate child is upgraded.
  • BG on 14 February 1973 with the provisions on the capacity and marriageable age be changed (BGBl. 1973/108)
  • Federal Act of July 1, 1975 on the reorganization of the personal legal effects of marriage (BGBl. 1975/412)
    • Differentiations regarding rights and obligations depending on the sex of the spouse are (for the most part) canceled.
    • The amicable way of life comes to the fore.
    • There is an extension of the duty of assistance.
  • Federal Act of 30 June 1977 on the reorganization of the law on children (BGBl. 1977/403)
    • Father and mother should be given equal rights and the child's duty to be heard is enforced.
  • Federal Act of June 15, 1978 with amendments to the law of spouses' inheritance, the law of matrimonial property and the law of divorce (BGBl. 1978/280)
    • This is mainly improves the position of women in the context of inheritance law.
  • Federal Act of 30 June 1978 amending the Marriage Act (Federal Law Gazette 1978/303)

1980s, 1990s

Further changes should round off the rules of the Great Family Law Reform:

2000 until today

literature

  • Herbert Kalb: The marriage law in the Republic of Austria 1918–1978 , in: KRGÖ der ÖAW (Ed.), Contributions to the legal history of Austria - BRGÖ, 2012, 27-43. ( online )

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ According to Bettina Zehetner: Hildegard Steger-Mauerhofer: Halbe / Halbe - Utopia Gender Democracy? Review. In: Frauenberatenfrauen.at. Women advising women, accessed July 29, 2011 .
  2. ↑ Parliament website : Registered Partnership Act - EPG , Parliamentary materials on the law. Retrieved December 10, 2009.
  3. ↑ The standard: National Council fixes entry of gay partnerships
  4. ↑ Federal Law Gazette I No. 161/2017
  5. ↑ Differentiation between marriage and registered partnership violates the prohibition of discrimination Website of the VfGH, December 5, 2017