in the law of certain foreign states (France, Italy, and West Germany, for example), an agreement between groom and bride, concluded upon entering into marriage, which regulates their mutual rights and obligations with respect to the management and control of property. The marriage contract is very widespread in the legislation of bourgeois countries; it deals with the property belonging to the wife before her marriage and entails a certain abridgment of her rights.

The marriage contract aims at establishing so-called co-management of the premarital property of the bride (for example, the law of June 13, 1965, in France) or transferring all rights with respect to the management of this property to the husband (for example, in Turkey). In countries where temporary marriages are permitted, the marriage contract establishes their duration and the amount of the temporary wife’s redemption (for example, the law of June 15, 1967, in Iran).

There is no concept of a marriage contract in the legislation of the socialist countries. However, the conditions of communality or separateness of the spouses’ premarital property may be established by an agreement between them (for example, in Poland). In the USSR, legislation does not provide for a marriage contract, and it is not employed in practice.