El matrimonio en forma religiosa no católica

Abstract

72

Article 6, paragraph 1 of the Law of Religious Freedom authorizes a civil marriage .when neither of the contracting parties professes the Catholic religion, without prejudicé to those rites or ceremonies of noncatholic denominations which may be celebrated befote or after the civil marriage provided that they do not offend morality or good customs». It is obvious that this precept, although it may not change our matrimonial system substantially, does introduce a new element into civil marriage, namely, «the rites or ceremonias of non-catholic denominations». This has occasioned us to make a study of the different matrimonial systems which recognize the so-called «religious marriage», with the object of determining whether any of them can give us guide-lines for our study of the principie which is outlined by this legal definition. We have found that only the Italian matrimonial law for non-catholics can help the Spanish legislator to create such a law, because it reflects very closely principies similar to those which inspired our system. After briefly describing non-catholic marriage in Italy, we have made a careful study of the Spanish system. The special meaning of certain amendments made Turing the drafting of the Bill, the authoritative opinions in the same direction, along with the first-hand experience of the Italian system, have induced us to sustain the recognitian of religious form of civil marriage. This thesis is accompanied by several considerations de lege ferenda.