Civil marriage

Civil marriage is a legal union established and recognized by government authority. Its validity depends on civil law rather than solely on a religious institution or ceremony.

Marriage license: An official authorization required in some jurisdictions before a couple can marry. It is a common legal prerequisite to forming a civil marriage.
Marriage: A socially and legally recognized union between people, whose forms and rules vary across cultures and jurisdictions. Civil marriage is one legally defined form of the broader institution.
Spousal privilege: Legal protections that limit compelled testimony or disclosure between spouses in specified proceedings. Civil marriage can establish the spousal relationship on which these protections depend.
Religious marriage: A marriage solemnized or defined according to the rites or rules of a religious tradition. It may be religiously valid without automatically being recognized under civil law.
Same-sex marriage: Marriage between two people of the same sex, recognized by law in some jurisdictions. Its legal recognition has tested whether civil marriage is equally available to same-sex couples.
Marriage certificate: An official record documenting that a marriage has taken place. It provides documentary evidence that civil authorities recognize the marriage.
Legal personhood: The status of being recognized as a person capable of holding legal rights and duties. Marriage law attaches rights and duties to legally recognized persons.
Marital property: Property subject to rules governing ownership or division between spouses. Civil marriage may place assets under a jurisdiction's marital-property rules.
Domestic partnership: A legally recognized relationship that grants some couple-based rights without constituting marriage. It can provide selected legal benefits while remaining distinct from marriage.
Obergefell v. Hodges: The 2015 United States Supreme Court decision recognizing a constitutional right to same-sex marriage. The ruling made civil marriage available to same-sex couples throughout the United States.

Linked from 10 pages