Mariage religieux juridiquement valables

In Latvia, Section 51 of the Civil Law grants a special legal status to the eight religious communities : the Evangelical Lutheran Church, Roman Catholic Church, Latvian Orthodox Church, Old Believers, Methodists, Baptists, Seventh Day Adventists and believers in Moses (Judaism). On 10 October 2023, new amendments to the Civil Law entered into force. They state that the marriage rite performed by a minister belonging to the (neo)pagans Dievturi has legal force. The new legal provisions will be applied after the law on mutual relations between the state and the Dievturi religious organisation is adopted. Such a condition is required by the related amendments to the law “On the Time of Coming into Force and the Procedures for the Application of the Part on Family Law of the Renewed Civil Law of 1937 of the Republic of Latvia”.