Latvian Terminology of Marriage in 20th Century Legislative Acts

Among the political changes brought about by the First World War was the formation of new countries, including Latvia. This in turn resulted in a strong need for the first national legislative acts and thus a substantial amount of effort to develop Latvian legal terminology which dates back to the beginning of the 19th century.

The purpose of the paper is to study the development of Latvian terminology of marriage in the 20th century through analysis of the relevant body of laws. The paper focuses on marriage-related terms extracted from the major legislative acts governing the institution of marriage in the 20th century. The present study adopts the qualitative research approach which constitutes data collection (selection of the relevant legislative acts, term extraction) and data analysis (qualitative analysis of extracted terms). For the purposes of a comprehensive and efficient analysis of the extracted legal terms, marriage terms are divided into the following five thematic groups: 1) engagement; 2) entering into marriage; 3) nullity of marriage; 4) dissolution of marriage (divorce); and 5) consequences of dissolution or nullity of marriage. The paper suggests that the core of the Latvian terminology of marriage has remained stable, as entering into marriage is a solid procedure where two interested parties give notice to a public or religious institution in order to officially register their relationship. Similarly, both parties often feel the need to terminate this relationship just as officially. This stability of fundamental processes contributes to terminological continuity.