Qualifying Characteristics of Common Law Marriage

Abstract

This article focuses on the qualifying characteristics of a common law marriage, as an informal community of a man and a woman, which has to fulfill certain prescribed conditions in order to produce certain legal actions. Therefore, we start from the hypothesis that the qualifying characteristics of common law marriage can be determined on the basis of the legal definition of common law marriage, which is conditioned by social, historical and legal perceptions of common law marriage. The aim of this article is to determine the qualifying characteristics of common law marriage in a comparative legal context, their critical analysis and determination of qualifying characteristics and definition of common law marriage in positive law and the future Family Law in Republika Srpska. This gives importance and relevance to this paper. The comparative legal context includes both the countries of the former SFRY and some European countries.