Summary

The Family Law maintains the former principles of legal regulation of marital relationships, but amends the conditions and procedure of concluding a marriage.

§ 1 Paragraph 1 of the Family Law establishes directly that marriage is concluded between a man and woman. Marriage has a legal implication when it is registered in a registry office.

The Law contains a new provision which prohibits conclusion of marriage between subjects who have been adopted by the same person.

Following the example of advanced countries, a note as to the conclusion of marriage will not be made in a person's identification card any longer. The present situation in Estonia where there is no register of population which provides information as to personal status may lead to cases where of two persons getting married one is married already. In the latter case the marriage will be declared invalid by court.

The provision of the Family Law which allows a spouse to add to his/her surname that of the other spouse complies with the Language Law.