Marriage: myths and realities

Today, David Notaires presents the marriage contract and its different forms. In particular, we look at the myths that surround it and at the sometimes rather unusual clauses that some people hope to include in it.

We may all have been raised on American films, but the biographies of the most iconic celebrities have also revealed some juicy titbits. The marriage contract of Aristotle Onassis and Jackie Kennedy, for instance, reportedly set the number of nights per week the spouses undertook to spend together. This is typical of a country where the contract (and the law of the strongest, too) is king. Everything is negotiable.

In France, an old country of Roman and Germanic legal tradition, we are certainly less amusing, less creative, and also more balanced. The main purpose of the marriage contract is to set the rules of the game between the spouses for the duration of the marriage.
Four main regimes are available, from the most separate to the most united: separation of property, participation in acquisitions, community of property limited to acquisitions, and universal community. They must be handled with tact and precision, both when the contract is signed and throughout the stages of the couple's life!

Some more exotic clauses, however, have no place. A future husband, scarred by an unfortunate previous experience, once asked us to write that if his beloved were to leave him, or even be unfaithful, she would waive any claim in the event of divorce. Impossible, of course, as it runs contrary to fundamental principles of our law. In the end they signed a classic separation of property contract. We have not seen them since, and we hope they are happy… and above all at peace!