Family relationships are a personal and rather delicate topic that often raises many questions: how to register a marriage, how to dissolve it, and in particular, how to renew a previously terminated marriage. In this article, we will consider in detail how marriage is restored after divorce, whether it is possible to renew a marriage through the court, how to register a renewed marriage, and how long this process takes.

Marriage renewal

The Family Code, which defines the principles of marriage and the basic rules regarding marriage and divorce, previously contained an article that dealt with the right to remarry after its dissolution. Thus, Article 117 provided: “A woman and a man whose marriage has been dissolved have the right to file an application with the court for the remarriage of their marriage, provided that neither of them has since remarried.” During the period of validity of this article, such remarriage took place through an application to the court, and after the court issued a corresponding decision, the state body for civil status registration (DRACS) was required to issue a new marriage certificate.

However, the aforementioned Article 117 was excluded from the Family Code at the end of 2006, and therefore lost its force. In practice, this does not mean that there is no longer a possibility of remarriage. In fact, remarriage is now carried out not through the court, but in the same manner as the usual registration of marriage.

However, it should be noted that as of today, Article 118 of the Family Code, which regulates the resumption of marriage in the event of the appearance of a person who was declared dead or recognized as missing, remains in force. In conditions of full-scale war, cases of the use of such legal fiction as “declaration of a person dead” or “recognition of missing” are, unfortunately, not uncommon. 

Thus, only a court can declare a person dead or missing after a certain period of time has passed, during which there is no information about the person's whereabouts. And if in the event of a person being declared missing, the other spouse has the right to dissolve the marriage unilaterally through the DRACS, then in the event of a person being declared dead, the marriage is terminated automatically. 

In any case, if after the dissolution or termination of the marriage, the person who was declared dead or recognized as missing appears, and the relevant court decisions, and in the case of a previous declaration of the person as dead, and the death certificate are canceled, and the other spouse has not remarried after the termination of the marriage, the marriage is renewed or may be renewed upon the application of the spouses.

Grounds for resumption of marriage through court

Currently, there is no procedure for restoring marriage in court. The fact is that according to the Constitution of Ukraine,Love is based on the free consent of a woman and a man, and the Family Code stipulates that forcing a woman and a man into marriage is not allowed. The court cannot oblige a person to marry even to someone they were previously married to.

So, in order to get married, both spouses must be personally present at the DRACS when submitting an application for marriage registration and confirm the validity of their intentions to start a family.

So, if a spouse was married, later terminated it (by applying to the Civil Registry Office or through the courts), and intends to remarry, the marriage procedure is no different from the first marriage. 

Procedure for restoring marriage in court

If we analyze the judicial practice related to the restoration of marriage, it should be noted that the claims of the participants in the cases mostly concern the restoration of the marriage certificate, and not the restoration of the marriage as such. The Resolution of the Supreme Court of 09.08.2023 in case No. 755/4833/18 is representative. The court stated the following: “...in accordance with Part 1 of Article 6 of the Law of Ukraine "On State Registration of Civil Status Acts", it is the departments of state registration of civil status acts that are entrusted with the duties of conducting state registration... of marriage, divorce,... making changes to civil status records, renewing and annulling them; forming the State Register of Civil Status Acts of Citizens, maintaining it, and preserving the archive; exercising other powers in accordance with the legislation”. Thus, the court concluded that a claim for remarriage is not an effective way to protect a person’s rights in court. 

Another issue worth considering is the possibility of remarriage with a de facto deceased person. Important in this context is the Resolution of the Supreme Court of 03.02.2021 in case No. 243/5923/15-ts. The woman applied to the court with an application for review of the absentia decision, which dissolved the marriage between her and her deceased husband, during his lifetime. The woman noted that she did not know that the marriage had been dissolved and learned about this decision only when she applied to the notary to obtain an inheritance, since she was not properly notified of the consideration of the divorce case. The Court of Appeal upheld the claims of the deceased's wife and overturned the decision to dissolve the marriage. The mother of the deceased filed a cassation appeal against the decision of the court of appeal, but the court refused to satisfy this appeal.

In contrast, a diametrically opposite court decision can be observed in the Supreme Court Resolution of February 14, 2022 in case No. 2-4744/11, in which the factual circumstances are very similar to those in the case considered above. The woman also argued that the previously adopted decision on the dissolution of the marriage should be annulled, that is, she actually intended to renew the registered marriage with a person who later died. However, here the court noted the following: “…the review of a default judgment and its annulment after a significant period of time and after the death of a party in a dispute where succession is impossible, without the intention of restoring family relations by virtue of the death of one of the parties, is a legitimate case of restriction of the right of access to court”. Thus, the Supreme Court formulated a legal conclusion according to which “provided that a party is aware of the death of the other party in a case where succession is impossible, as is the restoration of family relations, the conduct of a party who, after a significant period of time, has applied for a review of a default judgment on formal grounds constitutes an abuse of procedural rights".

This Resolution appears to be less formalized, more substantiated and important in the context of the principles of family relations than the Resolution dated 03.02.2021 in case No. 243/5923/15-ц. So, it is actually impossible to restore a marriage through a court order, in particular with a deceased person - Renewal of marriage records is within the competence of the DRACS bodies and is possible only if the bride and groom intend to start a family.

Submitting an application for repeated state registration of marriage

Since the Family Code enshrines the principle of monogamy, one can only get married after the termination of a previous marriage. In this case, a document confirming the termination of the previous marriage (certificate of divorce, court decision on divorce, certificate of death of the other spouse in the previous marriage, etc.) is indicated in the application for state registration of marriage. At the same time, if the previous marriage of the bride or groom was not terminated, and an employee of the DRACS agency nevertheless registered the marriage of such a bride or groom, the marriage that was registered later is invalid. 

Thus, the Family Code defines marriage as a family union between a woman and a man, registered in the state civil status registration authority. Thus, for marriage registration, an application is submitted in the established form to any body of the State Civil Status Registration Authority by the bride and groom in person, “in person” or by mail. The application can be submitted without a prior appointment, however, the marriage registration itself will take place on a different day than the application submission, but according to current legislation – not earlier than a month from the date of such submission. However, this period may be shortened if there arean immediate threat to the life of the bride or groom, which is, among other things, martial law in effect in Ukraine from February 24, 2022 to the present.

In addition, the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine launched a pilot project “Marriage in a Day”. This service was introduced to reduce bureaucracy and simplify the procedure for registering a marriage. In practice, when choosing “Marriage in a Day”, the marriage will be registered within about 3-7 days from the date of submission of the application.

Deadline for marriage registration after divorce

There is no “break” during which a marriage cannot be registered after the termination of the previous one. Therefore, an application can be submitted at any time if the previous marriage is dissolved. Thus, the term for registering a marriage after a divorce is the same as in any other case of marriage registration and in practice is about 3-7 days in case of using the “Marriage in a Day” service or at least 30 days in case of choosing the general registration procedure (although in conditions of martial law this term may actually differ).

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