Marriage

Although the institution of marriage pre-dates reliable recorded history, many cultures have legends concerning the origins of marriage. The way in which a marriage is conducted and its rules and ramifications have changed over time, as has the institution itself, depending on the culture or demographic of the time.

One of the oldest known and recorded marriage laws is discerned from Hammurabi's Code, enacted in ancient Mesopotamia (widely considered as the cradle of civilization). Various cultures have had their own theories on the origin of marriage. One example may lie in a man's need for assurance as to paternity of his children. He might therefore be willing to pay a bride price or provide for a woman in exchange for exclusive sexual access. Legitimacy is the consequence of this transaction rather than its motivation.

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In Ancient Greece, no specific civil ceremony was required for the creation of a marriage - only mutual agreement and the fact that the couple must regard each other as husband and wife accordingly. Men usually married when they were in their 20s or 30s and expected their wives to be in their early teens. It has been suggested that these ages made sense for the Greek because men were generally done with military service by age 30, and marrying a young girl ensured her virginity. Married Greek women had few rights in ancient Greek society and were expected to take care of the house and children.

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There were several types of marriages in ancient Roman society. The traditional ("conventional") form called conventio in manum required a ceremony with witnesses and was also dissolved with a ceremony. In this type of marriage, a woman lost her family rights of inheritance of her old family and gained them with her new one. She now was subject to the authority of her husband. There was the free marriage known as sine manu. In this arrangement, the wife remained a member of her original family; she stayed under the authority of her father, kept her family rights of inheritance with her old family and did not gain any with the new family. The minimum age of marriage for girls was 12.

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In the Philippines, for most Filipinos, marriage used to be governed by the Civil Code. Now it is governed by the Executive Order No. 209 known as the Family Code, which took effect on August 4, 1988. The very first article of the Family Code defines marriage, in the following words: "Marriage is a special contract of permanent union between a man and a woman entered into in accordance with law for the establishment of conjugal and family life. It is the foundation of the family and an inviolable social institution whose nature, consequences, and incidents are governed by law and not subject to stipulation, except that marriage settlements may fix the property relations during the marriage within the limits provided by this Code."

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The next Article provides the essential requisites of marriage, without which the marriage will be void:(1) Legal capacity of the contracting parties who must be a male and a female; and (2) Consent freely given in the presence of the solemnizing officer. Note: it must be between male and female. In Article 5 it is also provided that the minimum age for marriage for either male or female is 18 years of age.

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Same-sex marriage is not recognized in the Philippines. While it is a relatively new practice that same-sex couples are being granted the same form of legal marital recognition as commonly used by mixed-sex couples, recent publicity and debate over the past decade gives an impression that civil marriage for lesbian and gay couples is novel and untested. There is a long history of recorded same-sex unions around the world. It is believed that same-sex unions were celebrated in Ancient Greece and Rome, some regions of China, such as Fujian, and at certain times in ancient European history. A law in the Theodosian Code (C. Th. 9.7.3) issued in 342 CE prohibited same-sex marriage in ancient Rome, but the exact intent of the law and its relation to social practice is unclear, as only a few examples of same-sex marriage in that culture exist.

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Aside from the essential requisites of marriage, there are also formal requisities, which are: (1) Authority of the solemnizing officer; (2) A valid marriage license (subject to certain exceptions); and (3) A marriage ceremony which takes place with the appearance of the contracting parties before the solemnizing officer and their personal declaration that take each other as husband and wife in the presence of not less than two witnesses of legal age.

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Absence of any of the essential or formal requisites shall generally render the marriage void from the very beginning (meaning, it cannot even be ratified). Article 5 provides that

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Muslim marriage and divorce, on the other hand, are governed by Presidential Decree No. 1083, known as the "Code of Muslim Personal Laws of the Philippines", issued on February 4, 1977, which recognizes Islamic rules on persons and family relations and marriage as legally valid. The rules are different. For instance, any Muslim male at least fifteen years of age and any Muslim female of the age of puberty or upwards are already qualified to marry. A female is presumed to have attained puberty upon reaching the age of fifteen.

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