Property rights of married people

The marriage Laws of the Russian Empire concerning the property rights of the spouses are summarized here following the book of K.Ducmanis /Ducmanis/.

An important peculiarity of the legislation in the Russia Empire was the limited legal capacity of women. In practice for all legal deeds they needed a man as a guardian. Non-married women were supported in courts etc. by their fathers or brothers; married women by their husbands.

See, for example, decisions of pagasts courts published in another Page of this site.

The same was true also for property rights. A married woman might have her own property, but her power to administer it was limited as far as the legal acts were considered. For example, she could not alienate her property without written permission of her husband. However she could go to a court, if she thought that the husband refused permission without serious reasons. A promissory note with the signature of the wife and without the signature of her husband had no legal effect.

Naturally, that the property that were earned during the marriage was managed by the husband. The same was true about the children. The father’s decision concerning them was the only one of importance. If the parents for some reasons did not live together, any of the parents could appeal to a court for the decision where should the children live. The court was obliged to solve the problem taking into account the interests of the children.

The laws that ruled the husband’s management were the laws corresponding to his estate. If his estate changed, for example, he being initially a peasant later registered himself as a city citizen, then his management also changed. See more about estates in the special Page.

I explained the general laws that were applied if the spouses did not sign a special marriage contract. The contracts could give rather great liberty in the property rights. They were to be made in written form and to be registered at a notary office. If a contract dealt with a real estate, then it was to be registered in the special registers of real estate - krepost books.

K.Ducmanis in his book /Ducmanis/ asserted that in general the property rights in the Russia Empire including Vitebskas province were more liberal than the property rights that had legal force in the Baltic provinces. The Laws of the Empire, adopted in 1832, declared the separation of the property of the spouses. Both of them could gain their own property during the marriage, and the dowry also remained the property of the wife. In the Baltic provinces serious legal diversity existed, because for each of the provinces their own local legislation was adopted that could accept different legal acts for various estates.

In the Baltic provinces two different main principles of the regulation of property rights existed 1) the principle of united possessions of the spouses; 2) the principle of the common possession of the spouses.

The difference between both types of possession was that the united possession could be split back when the marriage came to the end due to the death of one of the spouses or because of a divorce. The common possession, however, in this case was to be divided according to special rules.

There are too many details in the system to discuss them here, and I just wish to add that the system of united possession was applied to the rural regions of Baltic provinces and to Kurzeme cities, the system of common possession to clergy (non-noble) of Vidzeme province. In Vidzeme cities the third - mixed system was used. It resembled the system of common possession but some kinds of possession were excluded of the common possession.