MARRIAGE AS A CONSTITUTIONAL AND LEGAL CATEGORY: HISTORY AND MODERNITY

Abstract

Marriage can be interpreted as an institution of law, a legal fact, a special form of contract, a specific legal structure. In recent years, there has been an active debate about the neutralization of this definition regarding the gender difference between spouses. Many countries have legalized same-sex unions. The Constitutional Court of Russia and the European Court of Human Rights consider cases of discrimination based on sexual orientation. It is impossible to deny the importance of the institution of marriage for the legal field of any state. Marriage as a legal fact significantly affects the property and personal rights of spouses and other family members. In 2020 a number of amendments were made to the Constitution of the Russian Federation, among which was an amendment stating that marriage is a union of a man and a woman. There was a lot of controversy around this amendment. The rationale for introducing this definition into the text of the Constitution of the Russian Federation was the establishment of a final understanding of the institution of marriage. However everything is not clear. Is the consolidation of marriage as a constitutional and legal category a guarantee of preserving the traditional understanding of the marriage union? The article analyzes the category of «marriage» in the framework of the constitutional legislation of Russia. The article analyzes the significance of the amendment on marriage in the text of the Basic Law and the impact of this fact on the development of legislation on marriage and family relations.