Austria’s Constitutional Court has upheld a law requiring people to be at least 18 years old before they can marry, rejecting a challenge brought by an Austrian man and a Serbian woman who married abroad as teenagers, according to Kronen Zeitung.
The couple married in Serbia when the man was 19 and the woman was 16. After the woman moved to Austria, the Feldkirch District Court declared the marriage invalid. The couple appealed and asked the Constitutional Court to review the rule.
They argued that an absolute ban on marriage before 18 was disproportionate and unjustified. In their view, minors could still be protected if a court could declare an individual under 18 capable of marriage when that person showed sufficient maturity and understanding.
But the Constitutional Court disagreed. It ruled that Parliament did not exceed its lawmaking powers when it tied the ability to marry, without exception, to adulthood. The law, the court said, serves a public interest: protecting minors, safeguarding children’s welfare, and preventing child and forced marriages.
The court also stressed that marriage carries far-reaching personal, social and legal consequences. Because the rule only delays the point at which a marriage can legally take place, it does not violate the right to marry.
Austria’s Parliament removed the possibility of courts approving marriages involving minors in 2025. The decision confirms that, in Austria, adulthood is now the clear and unconditional threshold for marriage.
