Voluntariness as a “cross-cutting” principle of marriage relations in the Republic of Kazakhstan (some private-legal and public-legal aspects)

Abstract

The article presents a theoretical analysis of some controversial aspects of the legislative provision of the principle of voluntary marriage in Kazakhstan, which is investigated in the necessary “triad”: voluntary marriage, voluntary stay in marriage and voluntary termination of marital relations. The legislator's explicit emphasis on voluntariness, exclusively, as a principle of marriage leads to the fact that it is significantly leveled in the other two manifestations of this “triad”. The author analyzes the normative provisions of the marriage and family legislation of the Republic of Kazakhstan, other normative legal acts of national legislation, as well as a comparative legal study of the regulatory regulation of certain private issues in neighboring countries, on the basis of which some violations of the principle of voluntariness in the norms of domestic marriage and family legislation are illustrated. At the same time, the continuing trends of domestic legislation towards the presence of norms with pronounced gender asymmetry, which currently has no objective sociolegal justification, are revealed. The conflict-causing potential of the remaining legislative prohibitions in matters of divorce, which do not contribute to ensuring the principles of marriage relations in the Republic of Kazakhstan, is argued, and options for correcting legislative prescriptions are proposed in order to significantly reduce it.