Marriage Capacity, Social Values and Law-Making Process

This article explores capacity to marry in depth, beyond the literal statements presented by legal acts in Estonia. Th e discussion will be focusing on answering the following questions: What is the nature of marriage capacity and how it has been developed in Estonia? What are the values that the Estonian Family Law Act (2010) protects when regulating marriage capacity? In addition a brief comparative analysis will seek to explain how different regulations of the EU member states on the same matter (marriage capacity) are. Th is can also help discussions on whether is it justified to talk about cultural differences of EU member states in the context of marriage capacity or not.