Chapter I: Qualities and conditions required to enter into marriage

Marriage is contracted by two persons of different or the same sex.

Marriage may not be contracted before the age of eighteen.

Nevertheless, the public prosecutor of the place where the marriage is celebrated may grant age waivers for serious reasons.

There is no marriage where there is no consent.

The marriage of a French national, even if contracted abroad, requires his or her presence.

A second marriage may not be contracted until the first has been dissolved.

Minors may not enter into marriage without the consent of their father and mother; in the event of dissension between the father and mother, this division takes precedence.

If one of the two is dead or unable to express his or her will, the consent of the other is sufficient. It is not necessary to produce the death certificate of the father or mother of one of the future spouses when the spouse or the father and mother of the deceased attest to this death under oath. If the current residence of the father or mother is unknown,…

If the father and mother are dead, or if they are unable to express their will, the forefathers and foremothers shall replace them; if there is dissension between the forefather and the foremother of the same line, or if there is dissension between the two lines, this division shall entail consent. If the current residence of the father and mother is unknown and if they have not been heard from…

The production of a copy, reduced to the operative part, of the judgment declaring the absence or ordering an enquiry into the absence of the father and mother, grandparents or grandmothers of one of the future spouses shall be equivalent to the production of their death certificates in the cases provided for in Articles 149, 150, 158 and 159 of this code.