coverture
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Coverture was a legal doctrine in English common law under which a married woman's legal existence was considered to be merged with that of her husband. Upon marriage, she had no independent legal existence of her own, in keeping with society's expectation that her husband was to provide for and protect her. Under coverture a woman became a , whose legal rights and obligations were mostly subsumed by those of her husband. An unmarried woman, or , retained the right to own property and make contracts in her own name.
~51 min read
Article
23 sectionsContents
- Principle
- History
- Coverture in Early Modern England
- Criticism
- Abolition
- Coverture in the US Legal System
- Court cases
- Marital rape laws
- Ban of alternative fee arrangements in divorce
- Coverture in the world
- India
- Lebanon
- Nigeria
- Scotland
- Analogous concepts outside the common law system
- Outside the legal realm
- Cultural references
- See also
- Explanatory notes
- References
- Citations
- General bibliography
- External links
Coverture was a legal doctrine in English common law under which a married woman's legal existence was considered to be merged with that of her husband. Upon marriage, she had no independent legal existence of her own, in keeping with society's expectation that her husband was to provide for and protect her. Under coverture a woman became a , whose legal rights and obligations were mostly subsumed by those of her husband. An unmarried woman, or , retained the right to own property and make contracts in her own name.
Coverture became well-established in the common law for several centuries and was inherited by many other common-law jurisdictions, including the United States.