RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
A1 Blažek, Pavel
T1 
JF Aither
YR 2025
VO 16
IS 1
SP 26
OP 61
DO 10.5507/aither.2024.011
UL https://aither.upol.cz/en/artkey/ath-202401-0005.php
AB This article explores the medieval origins and antecedents of contemporary marriage rights as articulated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The foundational document of modern human rights asserts 1) that all human beings have the right to marry; 2) that marriages are to be entered into through free and uncoerced consent of the spouses; and 3) that both marriage partners are to enjoy equal rights. The argument is made that these principles are not strictly speaking modern innovations, but rather the resultof the long legal and doctrinal evolution of marriage, reaching back to the Middle Ages, and in part to Antiquity. The influence of medieval theories of marriage as a natural law institution, of the medieval doctrine of marital consent, and of medieval theories of the simultaneous equality and inequality of spouses in shaping modern marriage rights are highlighted.