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Russian legislation does not recognize unregistered marriage and does not consider cohabitation of a man and a woman to be a marriage

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The legislation of the Russian Federation does not recognize unregistered marriage and does not consider cohabitation of a man and a woman to be marriage.

The concept of marriage was first given in Russia in the Kormchaya Book: "Marriage is the union of a man and a wife, an event of a lifetime, Divine and human truth of communication."

Scientific approaches to the definition of marriage:

→ An institution of a special kind, a lifelong sexual union of a man and a woman, regulated by law (A.I. Zagorovsky).

→ A union of a man and a woman for the purpose of cohabitation, based on mutual agreement and concluded in the established form (G.F. Shershenevich).

→ A union of a man and a woman, sanctified by public consciousness, i.e. having acquired a legal character (K.P. Pobedonostsev).

Modern Russian legislation does not give a concept of marriage, but Article 72 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation mentions the institution of marriage as a union of a man and a woman.

! The most important formal criterion of marriage, distinguishing it from other legal facts in family and civil law, is the fact of state registration.

There is no institute of "de facto marriage" in the current Russian legislation. This is also confirmed by the following position of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation:

"Legal regulation of marital relations in the Russian Federation is carried out only by the state. At present, the law does not recognize unregistered marriage and does not consider cohabitation of a man and a woman to be a marriage. It does not give rise to legal consequences and therefore is not established by the courts as a fact of legal significance. An exception is made only for persons who entered into de facto marital relations before July 8, 1944, since the laws in force at that time recognized two types of marriage as equal - registered in the Civil Registry Office and de facto marriage."
The Ruling of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation No. 26-O of 17.05.1995.