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Copyright of Mediterranea - Ricerche Storiche is the property of Mediterranea-Ricerche Storiche and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article discusses the shift between Catholic Church canon law and state administrative policies as determining bodies for Austrian marriage policies and restrictions from the 1770s to the end of the 19th century. Topics discussed include concepts of incest, consanguinity, and heredity as restricting factors in marriage policy, the role of science and physicians in influencing state policy, and the Church concept of affinity, or marriage as a physical union of two people into one flesh.

The article discusses legal aspects of civil marriage in Italy after the 19th century Unification, focusing on sexual impotence as grounds for marriage annulment. Topics discussed include the history of civil procedure for annulment of marriage on these grounds, research on annulment proceedings in the civil tribunal of Naples, Italy in the late 19th century, and the range of men and women involved in these cases.

In this article I deal with the political and cultural dilemma of the distinction between arranged and forced or imposed marriages. After a review of the literature, interviews collected in 2009 in the Italian region of Emilia-Romagna are used to illustrate the views of the participants to the research. With the help of the theoretical tool of cultural materialism, I argue that the question can be approached from two different points of view: on the one hand, the distinction is clear as it is based on the recognition (even a late one) of an imposition by physical or psychological violence on the part of the subject; on the other hand sociological analysis of the process of construction and of expression of consent reveals a vast gray area that is object of debate in the scientific literature as well as in everyday life. Only the first definition of forced marriage, the subjective one, can justify the start of a concrete intervention by the public authorities - but this cannot stop the debate on the actual value of the consent given in many cases of marriages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Sociologia del Diritto is the property of FrancoAngeli srl and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)