engleski

Vox clamantis in deserto – attempts of introducing civil marriage in the interwar Yugoslavia

Marriage right posed a cultural, political and national problem in Yugoslavia between the two World Wars. The Yugoslav State officially recognised only three nations (Slovenians, Serbs and Croats), albeit many others lived there (e.g. Macedonians, Montenegrins, Albanians), and numerous religions were recognised (different Christian denominations, Judaism and Islam). Throughout its existence, the Yugoslav State recognised religious marriage law and the religious type of marriage ceremony, with some minor exceptions. Such regulations in the multinational and multi- religious state gave rise to many difficulties in citizens' daily lives, in relations between religious communities and the state, and especially between individual religious communities. Religious marriage, as an obsolete institution, was considered an obstacle to the enforcement of rights and freedoms of citizens guaranteed by the Constitutions, to achievement of interreligious peace and tolerance and to legal certainty. The backbone of the planned reform of marriage law was a debate on the introduction of civil marriage which was considered a solution that would eliminate all or most of the negative consequences of religious marriages. Thus, civil marriage was supposed to contribute to legal certainty, equality of citizens before the law, freedom of conscience and religion and removal of antagonisms among religious communities. However, proposals for the introduction of civil marriage (either as mandatory or optional) encountered difficulties since the majority of religious communities disputed the state's right to regulate marriage and expressed their opposition to civil marriage. The two largest religious communities, the Serbian Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church, specifically resisted the proposals. A conflict with churches, especially with the Serbian Orthodox Church whose support was of special significance, did not suit the ruling dynasty and the political elite. For this reason, no Yugoslav government in the period between the two World Wars dared to seriously address the issue. It turned out that a quarter century of efforts and advocating a reform of marriage law with the proposal for the introduction of civil marriage was actually just a vox clamantis in deserto.

civil marriage, religious marriage, legal particularism, Kingdom of Yugoslavia

Međunarodni skup