Annulment (marriage)
As nullity of marriage is referred to the invalidity of a marriage from the beginning of serious legal flaws in the marriage. The annulment of the marriage is the legally effective determination of this fact.
Jurisprudence describes a legal act (including marriage) as ineffective or void if it is not effective , i.e. has no legal effect. If a marriage is declared null and void ex tunc (from the beginning), it is to proceed as if this marriage never existed. In this sense, the annulment of a marriage is fundamentally different from a dissolution ex nunc (from the time of dissolution), as can be brought about by divorce or annulment .
Austrian law
Under Austrian law, a marriage can be declared null and void for the following reasons:
- Defect of form (e.g. marriage ceremony without the fiancée being present at the same time)
- Lack of capacity (z. B. drunkenness)
- Name and citizenship marriage (e.g. foreigners only marry in order to later obtain citizenship )
- Double marriage (bigamy)
- Relatives (e.g. siblings)
The public prosecutor and any spouse are entitled to bring an action (exception: marriage by name and citizenship).
German law
In Germany, marriage ex tunc has ceased to exist since July 1, 1998. The legislature now assumes that it would be unreasonable to legally disqualify an entire period of life in which the parties involved were at least publicly and usually also their own conviction as "not been", even if it was objective There were reasons for the fact that the marriage should actually have not been considered effective at the time.
Until then, the grounds for nullity under the German Marriage Act (Sections 17-22 old version) were as follows:
- Lack of form, unless the spouses lived together for at least 5 years after the marriage ;
- Lack of business or judgment, unless one spouse has indicated after the abolition of incapacity, that he wants to continue the marriage;
- Double marriage (exists if one spouse was living in a valid marriage with a third party at the time of the marriage)
- Relationship and brotherhood , unless there was a valid exemption from the relevant prohibition on marriage .
The claim was directed against both spouses if the prosecution brought the lawsuit. If one spouse himself sued for nullity, the claim was directed against the other spouse. The family court was responsible . Only the declaratory marriage declaratory action (“ action to establish the existence or non-existence of a marriage between the litigants”) could be linked to the marriage annulment action .
In German law, after its abolition, the so-called annulment of marriage has taken the place of nullity. Their pronouncement has a different effect than nullity ex nunc , i.e. not back to the day of the marriage. A non-marriage therefore only exists in a few exceptional cases, namely if the legal errors in the marriage are so serious that, from a legal point of view, a marriage did not take place at all (e.g. child marriages or a missing yes-word).
Canon Law
For the annulment of marriage in Catholic canon law, see the main article under the keyword marriage nullity (canon law) .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Bruno Bergerfurth: The civil process. Lawsuit - Judgment - Appeal. 5th edition, Freiburg im Breisgau 1985, margin no. 544.
