LOVE, COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE

Courtship and Mate Selection

Courtship is a social process engaged in by two individuals. It is a form of behavior seeking to win the consent of another for marriage.  It is progressive commitment leading to a succession of events towards the development of stable interpersonal relationship. Most significant is the development of love and affection

Ø  Courtship is a process which undergoes various stages:

                a.  Dating-getting acquainted

                b. Going steady – practice of dating one person exclusively

                c. Private understanding- open declaration of each other’s desire for marriage

                d. Engagement – public announcement of love, involving parents, relatives and friends

What is Marriage?

Marriage is another human construction to insure the continuity of the family and the eventual perpetuation of the human specie. It involves a certain behavioral processes and legal or religious practices which become patterned and organized  into the system of matrimony. Marriage is systematized and institutionalized for the purpose of begetting and rearing children and the regulation of sexual behavior. It is a special contract  of permanent union between a man and a woman entered into in accordance with law for the establishment of conjugal and family life. ( The New Family Code of the Philippines)

Marriage is socially recognized union between two or more individuals that typically involves sexual and economic rights and duties ( Light and Keller).  It is a social and legal norm by which the relationship of the two sexes is controlled and restricted by society.

Two views of marriage:

1. Legal point of view that posits that marriage is a contract.

                As a contract, it applies to a man and a woman who agree to live together as husband and wife and to fulfill to each other their corresponding duties and obligations. It is permanent, in contrast to other, ordinary contracts. Once the contract of marriage is valid, the status of being married is created between the parties. The law provides penal and civic sanctions, like criminal action, for adultery or concubinage. The law also allows legal separation, annulment or action for support.  Any party whose rights as stipulated in the contract have been violated can file a petition in court for the redress of his or her grievances.

2. The religious point of view posits that marriage is a sacrament.

                As a sacrament, it is an inviolable bond between  a man and a woman who take each other as husband and wife and that only death can separate the spouses. “What God has put  together let no man put asunder”

IMPORTANT LEGAL MATTERS ON MARRIAGE:

a. Essential  Requisites For Marriage

The Family Code  of the Philippines provides in Art. 2 : No marriage shall be valid, unless these essential requisites are present:

                 1. legal capacity of the contracting parties (18 yrs. or upwards), who must be a male and a           female.

                 2. Consent freely given in the presence of the solemnizing officer.

b. Formal Requisites of Marriage:

                               

                1. Authority of the solemnizing officer;

                2. A valid marriage license except in cases provided in chapter 2 of this title; and

3. A marriage ceremony which takes place with the appearance of the contracting parties before the solemnizing officer and their personal declaration that they take each other as husband and wife In                 the presence of not less than two witnesses of legal age:

 c. Annulment of Marriage

Annulment refers to the legal process  of filing a petition in the appropriate court seeking a judicial declaration of making a marriage null and void ab initio or from the  beginning as if no marriage took place.  The legal effect, if petition, is granted is that the couple can re-marry.

Grounds for Annulment

1. One of the contracting parties is 18 yrs. of age or over but below 21 and without parental consent;

2. Either party was of unsound mind;

3. Consent of either party was obtained by fraud, force or intimidation;

4. Either party was physically incapable of  consummating the marriage with the  other;

5. Either party was afflicted with a sexually transmissible disease found to be serious and incurable.

d.  Legal Separation

               

Refers to the legal process of filing a petition in the appropriate court seeking a judicial declaration of legal separation for married  couples.  The legal effect, if petition is granted, is that the couple are separated from bed and board but they cannot remarry.

Grounds for Legal Separation

1. Repeated physical violence or grossly abusive conduct directed against the petitioner, a common child, or a child of the petitioner;

2. Physical violence or moral pressure to compel the petitioner to change religion or political affiliation;

3. Attempt of respondent to corrupt or induce the petitioner, a common child, or a child of the petitioner, to engage in prostitution, or connivance in such corruption or inducement. 

4. final judgment sentencing the respondent to imprisonment of more than six years, even if pardoned;

5. Drug addiction or habitual alcoholism of the respondent; 

6. Lesbianism or homosexuality of the respondent;

7.  Contracting by the respondent of a subsequent bigamous marriage, whether in the Philippines or abroad.

8. Sexual infidelity or perversion;

9.  Attempt by the respondent against the life of the petitioner; or

10. Abandonment of petitioner by respondent without justifiable cause  for more than one year.