AKMV Annulment of marriage
QUESTION
Can I annul a marriage within 24 hours?
ANSWER:
Our legislation does not recognize the term annulment of marriage. According to Act No. 36/2005 Coll. on the Family (hereinafter referred to as the “Family Act”), it is possible to declare a marriage invalid. A marriage can primarily be considered invalid if it was not entered into freely, seriously, clearly, and intelligibly.
A marriage is also invalid if it was entered into with a married man or woman, a marriage between ascendants and descendants, between siblings (even in cases of adoption), a marriage entered into by a minor (under 18 years old, except in cases where a marriage is entered into by a minor from 16 years of age with court approval), a marriage entered into by a person with limited legal capacity (without court approval), or a person suffering from a mental disorder that would result in deprivation of legal capacity.
According to § 16 para. 1 of the Family Act: “A marriage that has been declared invalid by the court is considered not to have been concluded.”
According to the judgment of the Regional Court in Prešov, file no. 8Tos/31/2023: “A final court decision on the invalidity of a marriage is a constitutive decision with ex tunc effects, meaning that a marriage declared invalid by the court is considered never to have existed from the moment of its conclusion. However, since only the court decision on the invalidity of the marriage constitutes a new legal status, during the period from the conclusion of the marriage until the day the court’s decision becomes final, such a marriage is regarded as validly existing.”
The Family Act in § 17 also establishes situations where a marriage does not arise at all. These are cases where the declaration of marriage:
was forced by violence,
was made by a minor under 16 years of age,
was made before an unauthorized registry office, except as provided in § 4 paras. 2 and 3, or if the declaration of marriage was made before an unauthorized mayor or deputy, or member of municipal or city council,
was made before a church or religious community that is not registered under a special regulation, or if the declaration of marriage was made before a person not authorized to perform clergy duties for a registered church or religious community,
was made abroad before an authority not authorized to do so, or
was made by a representative without valid power of attorney, or if the power of attorney was revoked under this Act.
How long does it take to annul a marriage (declare a marriage invalid)?
Declaring a marriage invalid may take several months or even more than a year, depending on the circumstances of the specific case. The length of the process depends on various factors, such as the complexity of the grounds for invalidity, court workload, and cooperation of both parties. The process begins with filing a petition with the court, which will then examine the grounds for invalidity.
What are the most common reasons for annulling a marriage?
The most common reason petitioners request a court to declare a marriage invalid is the presence of a mental disorder in one of the spouses, or a limitation of their legal capacity.
According to § 12 para. 2 of the Family Act (ZR): “A person whose legal capacity is limited may marry only with the permission of the court.” In case the legal capacity has not yet been formally limited by a final court decision, the Family Act further states: “A person suffering from a mental disorder which would result in the limitation of legal capacity cannot enter into marriage. However, the court may permit such a person to marry if their health condition is compatible with the purpose of marriage” (§ 12 para. 3 ZR).
In both cases: “The court shall declare such a marriage invalid upon the request of either spouse” (§ 12 para. 5 ZR). Lack of legal capacity or a mental disorder that would lead to a restriction of legal capacity are obstacles to entering into marriage. However, the Family Act also provides a way in which these obstacles may be removed and the invalid marriage “healed” (i.e., made valid). According to the last sentence of § 12 para. 5 ZR: “The court (during the ongoing court proceeding) shall not declare the marriage invalid and the marriage becomes valid if the spouse’s health condition becomes compatible with the purpose of marriage.”
According to § 1 para. 2 ZR, the purpose of marriage is: “To create a harmonious and lasting union that ensures the proper upbringing of children.”
It is not required for the person to regain full legal capacity or for the mental disorder to disappear entirely. What matters is that the spouse’s health condition improves sufficiently so that the court can recognize the marriage as valid. (See, for example, the judgment of the Regional Court of Prešov, file no. 24CoP/178/2021.)
JUDr. Veronika Michalíková, MBA QUESTION
My husband and I got divorced last month. I would like to ask how it works in the case of a church – Catholic – annulment and what the procedure is.
ANSWER:
The Catholic Church does not recognize the term divorce, only the declaration of a marriage as invalid – so-called annulment of marriage. In the case of the Roman Catholic Church, the process is governed by the Code of Canon Law (CIC), which sets out the grounds for the annulment of marriage.
In general, these grounds can be divided into three main categories:
The presence of an impediment that invalidates marriage (e.g., insufficient age, kinship between spouses, etc.)
Defective marital consent (e.g., inability to assume the essential obligations of marriage, simulation of consent, etc.)
Failure to observe the required form of marriage
Church courts decide on the annulment of a marriage. We recommend that you contact your local parish office based on your place of residence.
Annulment of Marriage
Annulment of marriage means that the marriage was invalidly contracted.
A suspicion of invalidity is reviewed by an Ecclesiastical Tribunal, which operates under the norms of the Code of Canon Law. If it is found that the marriage was invalid from the beginning, the church court will declare it null and void, meaning that it never validly existed.
What are the grounds for the annulment of a Catholic (church) marriage?
The Code of Canon Law (CIC) distinguishes three categories of reasons for which a validly contracted marriage can be declared null:
- The marital consent was not expressed in accordance with the law (e.g., the person “lacks sufficient use of reason,” the person has “a grave lack of discretion of judgment concerning essential matrimonial rights and duties which are to be mutually given and accepted,” or “due to causes of a psychic nature is unable to assume the essential obligations of marriage”; this also includes entering into marriage by mistake or through fraud).
- At the time of contracting the marriage, one of the so-called diriment impediments was present (e.g., impediment of age – “A man before completing his sixteenth year of age and a woman before completing her fourteenth year of age cannot validly contract marriage”; impediment of disparity of cult – “Marriage is invalid between two persons, one of whom is baptized in the Catholic Church or received into it, and the other is unbaptized”; impediment of impotence – “Antecedent and perpetual impotence to have intercourse, whether on the part of the man or the woman, absolute or relative, invalidates marriage by its very nature”; or the impediment of an already existing valid marital bond – “One who is bound by the bond of a previous marriage, even if not consummated, attempts marriage invalidly”).
- The form prescribed by canon law for contracting marriage was not observed (“Only those marriages are valid which are contracted before the local ordinary or pastor, or a priest or deacon delegated by either of them, and in the presence of two witnesses, according to the norms expressed in the following canons and without prejudice to the exceptions mentioned in canons 144, 1112 §1, 1116, and 1127 §1–2 (CIC), etc.”).
For more detailed information on the individual grounds for annulment in canon law, you can visit this official page of the Slovak Bishops’ Conference (KBS): https://www.kbs.sk/obsah/sekcia/h/dokumenty-a-vyhlasenia/p/kodex-kanonickeho-prava
JUDr. Veronika Michalíková, MBA