Parents, Children, Marriage: Bulgarian Courts’ View on Romani Marriage-making

Abstract

This commentary deals with customary early marriages as practiced by some Romani communities in Bulgaria, and the ways in which they are represented in judgments issued by the criminal courts. It traces the legal routes by which this practice is prosecuted, explores who typically faces charges under the relevant criminal texts, and provides examples from case law. The main aims of the text are to demonstrate the value of court records as sources for ethnographic enquiry, to offer examples of the application of these sources to projects of interest to (legal) anthropology, and to encourage their use by both social scientists and lawyers.