Family law is an area of the law that deals with family-related issues and domestic relations including the termination of the relationship and ancillary matters such as annulment. Annulment is a legal procedure for declaring a marriage null and void. Unlike divorce, it is retroactive: an annulled marriage is considered never to have existed.

In the Roman Catholic Church, a marriage is considered to be a valid contract entered into between two willing parties, and ratified by Divine sanction. In simplest terms, it is necessary that it be marriage that is contracted, that it actually be contracted, and that both parties enter willingly into the contract.

If any of these conditions lack, then the marriage is not contracted, Divine sanction is not obtained, and there is in actual fact no marriage. An annulment is a finding later that there was no actual marriage contracted in God's eyes, and therefore no marriage in reality, regardless of civil ordinance or appearance to humans. Learn more about family law with the .

Therefore, an annulment of a marriage is much more analogous to a finding that a contract of sale was invalid, and hence, that the property for sale must be considered to have never legally transferred possession, than analogous to a divorce, which is more like returning the property after a consummated sale.

Marriages are declared null ab initio, meaning that the marriage has been essentially invalid from the beginning. Some Catholics therefore worry that their children will be considered illegitimate if they get annulments. Visit the to learn more about family laws.

An annulment verified by the Catholic Church is independent from obtaining a civil divorce, although before beginning a process in front of the Ecclesiastical Tribunal, it has to be clear that the marriage community cannot be rebuilt.

If someone has all the signs of being married previously, he or she must get an annulment before entering into a marriage in the Catholic Church, even if the individual was not married in the Catholic Church previously.

Catholics acknowledge the indissolubility of marriage for any baptized persons who give themselves freely in the bond of marriage and recognize the marriages of other Christians in most cases. For more information about family laws and laws that it covers, then visit the for more details.