This day of study, organised at the University of Angers by Carole Avignon and Michel Nassiet, focuses on socio-historical practices and variations around the right to marriage, considering them between norms and deviations, from antiquity to the present day. The inclusion of the study over a long period of time makes it possible to understand how changes in social behaviour have influenced the evolution of the legal corpus. By comparing historical times, paradigms and the different fields of social sciences (anthropology, sociology, law), we wish to question the relevance of conceptual tools (in particular ‘deviance’) and to link the definition of marital institution to social practices. It is also necessary to propose a state of play in the different historical periods and in the different disciplinary fields covered (history and law), to reflect on the definition of the ‘gap to the norm’ in relation to the formation of the marital link. Studying the formation of marital ties makes it possible to raise the question of the right to marriage, to consider marriage as the place of expression of force (between generations, between the sexes, between ecclesiastical and secular authorities, between secular and secular authorities and between the authorities with legislative or judicial powers, the father of the family, the priest and the civil registrar; between social categories, etc.). It thus implies a reflection on the forms of exclusion imposed by the law, and more broadly on the understanding of marriage as an institution. The question thus arises as to the means of measuring the matrimonial rule, as laid down by the legislative authorities, but also as experienced by the social actors (between accession and coercion, between assimilation and reformulation).