Emancipation Acts Law and Legal Definition
Emancipation Acts refer to statutes enacted to remove a married woman's legal disabilities. These statutes abolished the common-law prohibitions against a married woman's contracting, suing and being sued, or acquiring, holding, and conveying property in her own right, free from any restrictions by her husband. In addition, these acts abolished the spousal-unity doctrine. Spousal unity doctrine is the common-law rule which implied that a husband and wife were a legal unity. Emancipation Acts are also known as married women's acts, married woman's property acts or married women's emancipation acts.
