Roman Concubinage and Other De Facto Marriages

Freedom in Marriage? Manumission for Marriage in the Roman World

“…As part of his manumission reforms, Augustus had set in place age thresholds: all of the master's heirs'. On concubinage in general, see Rawson 1974;Treggiari 1981a;McGinn 1991;Friedl 1996;Tramunto 2009 manumissions of either slaves under thirty or by owners under twenty required approval by a council convened for the purpose. 23 Women manumitted for marriage were, presumably, often under the age of thirty, so to effect this manumission the owner would need to present the enslaved woman before the council and offer a valid reason (causa) for her manumission, in this case his desire for marriage.…”

The Politics of Cohabitation in South Africa: Exploring Who Qualifies for Pension Benefits Under Section 37C of the Pension Funds Act, 24 of 1956

“…The State may not unfairly discriminate either directly or indirectly against anyone on the grounds of sexual orientation (Stychin, 1996). From different jurisdictions with different perspectives, writers have interpreted cohabitation as living together (Gierveld, 2004), shacking-up (Alm and Whittington, 1974), de facto marriage (Rawson, 1974), quasi-marriage (Waaldijk,2005), common-law marriage (Bruch, 1981), domestic partnership (Bowman and Cornish, 1992) or private marriage (Lewis, 2001).…”

European family history and Roman law

“…12 Among those whose status precluded iustum matrimonium, the union might be labelled 'contubernium' or '.concubinatus', but the partners could still call themselves 'husband' and 'wife' in a monogamous relationship. 13 The most obvious evidence that status did not bar family formation in practice comes from the slave population. Epigraphic evidence proves that slaves thought of themselves as being members of families in our sense, as well as belonging to the master's/aw///a in the patrimonial sense discussed by Herlihy.…”