Czech Republic

In the Czech Republic, marriage is a legal bond between any two adult individuals of the opposite sex who are not close relatives. The cultural and historical foundation of marriage lies in Roman family law and later Christian marriage doctrines, strictly defining its monogamous character and the inseparability of the bond. The individual and free choice of partner is most characteristic of marriage today, motivated by an emotional relationship— love—and accompanied by the legal possibility of divorce. In addition, since 1998 future marriage partners have been able to settle legal and property aspects of the relationship in a premarital agreement.

Marriage enables partners to start a family, as a specifically intimate form of partnership between a man and a woman. In the early twenty-first century, other forms (e.g., marriage between homosexual partners, open polygamy, or polyandry) were not legally permissible. Since 1992 it has been possible to marry in either a civic or a church ceremony. The conditions for entering into a marriage are legally set and stipulate that an individual may not enter into a marriage with a person who is already married, or with a parent, child, brother, or sister, and require that a person be of legal marrying age (eighteen years), although a court may grant exceptions. A marriage may be terminated in a manner stipulated in the legal code—in other words, through the death of a spouse or through divorce.