Key info Structure
, Hyde v Hyde (1866) - ‘’voluntary union for life of one man to one woman to the exclusion of all others.”
Marriage and civil partnerships
Definition provides for 4 conditions
1) the marriage must be voluntary
2) it must be for life
3) its monogamous
4) it must be heterosexual (now abolished)
Civil partnership act 2004 ( CPA )
- Provided legal status comparable to marriage for same sex couples.
Civil partnerships, marriage and deaths (registration etc) Act 2019, S2 ( CPMDA )
- CP amended to include opposite sex couples to have a CP - though no obligation
Equality Act 2010, s202 ( EA )
- Allowed for religious organisers to carry out civil marriage and separate religious service
Marriage (Same Sex Couple) Act 2013
- legalised religious organisations to marry same sex couples
- s1(1) same sex marriage is lawful
- para 5 - specifies man can marry man, women can marry women etc.
- authorises the conversion of CP into marriage. CP ends at conversion and marriage is treated to
exist from CP formation
Formalities of marriage
Marriage Act 1949 ( MA )
- Publicity:
- allows for others to object and must be in advance
- Registration:
- must be registered (though validity of marriage doesn't rely on reg if there is an evidential value in
establishing the marriage has taken place)
- Ceremony:
- Exchange of vows
- open to public with 2 witnesses
- in the presence of an authorised person
- in a certain verified venue ((R2(1) marriages (approved premises) regulations 2005))
Capacity of marriage
Matrimonial Causes Act, s11. ( MCA )
- 16 or 18 (with parents consent)
- neither party already married or in CP
- must be within prohibited degree of consanguinity/affinity
- Marriage Act 1949, Sch 1 - prohibited relationships unable to marry
Corbett v Corbett
- Transgender case
- Held: you remain the same gender as birth regardless of latter choices. biology is set/fixed at birth
Goodwin v UK and I v UK
- English law didn’t respect dignity of transgender due to invasion and embarrassment of revealing
their birth registration
Gender Recognition Act 2004 ( GRA )
- Gender recognition certificates could be obtained to state that you could marry in acquired gender
(though did not alter the law on the capacity to marry)
- must have had gender dysphoria
- over 18 years old
- lived in acquired gender for 2 years
- intend to live in intended gender
Non-qualifying ceremony
- so far below the requirements that it cannot be a marriage at all, not even a void marriage.
Hudson v Leigh
- Factors which may be considered on a case-by-case basis
- whether the ceremony set out or purported to be a lawful marriage
- whether it bore all/enough of the hallmarks of marriage
- whether the key participants believed/intended and understood the ceremony to give rise to the
status of legal marriage
- reasonable perceptions understanding and beliefs of those attending
Attorney General v Akhter [2020] EWCA Civ 122
- wedding took place in restaurant (knowing it would not be legal) then failed to have civil ceremony
later to make it legal
- HELD: Wasn’t a deliberate failure to comply but had merely failed to comply with certain
formalities therefore a non-marriage
Void marriage
Matrimonial causes Act 1973, s11 ( MCA )
- The marriage never existed in the eyes of the law
- Lack of capacity (see above)
- S49 MA - marriage will only be void if the parties knowingly and wilfully disregard them
- Decree of nullity - states that the marriage is void - may provided financial relief.
, Hyde v Hyde (1866) - ‘’voluntary union for life of one man to one woman to the exclusion of all others.”
Marriage and civil partnerships
Definition provides for 4 conditions
1) the marriage must be voluntary
2) it must be for life
3) its monogamous
4) it must be heterosexual (now abolished)
Civil partnership act 2004 ( CPA )
- Provided legal status comparable to marriage for same sex couples.
Civil partnerships, marriage and deaths (registration etc) Act 2019, S2 ( CPMDA )
- CP amended to include opposite sex couples to have a CP - though no obligation
Equality Act 2010, s202 ( EA )
- Allowed for religious organisers to carry out civil marriage and separate religious service
Marriage (Same Sex Couple) Act 2013
- legalised religious organisations to marry same sex couples
- s1(1) same sex marriage is lawful
- para 5 - specifies man can marry man, women can marry women etc.
- authorises the conversion of CP into marriage. CP ends at conversion and marriage is treated to
exist from CP formation
Formalities of marriage
Marriage Act 1949 ( MA )
- Publicity:
- allows for others to object and must be in advance
- Registration:
- must be registered (though validity of marriage doesn't rely on reg if there is an evidential value in
establishing the marriage has taken place)
- Ceremony:
- Exchange of vows
- open to public with 2 witnesses
- in the presence of an authorised person
- in a certain verified venue ((R2(1) marriages (approved premises) regulations 2005))
Capacity of marriage
Matrimonial Causes Act, s11. ( MCA )
- 16 or 18 (with parents consent)
- neither party already married or in CP
- must be within prohibited degree of consanguinity/affinity
- Marriage Act 1949, Sch 1 - prohibited relationships unable to marry
Corbett v Corbett
- Transgender case
- Held: you remain the same gender as birth regardless of latter choices. biology is set/fixed at birth
Goodwin v UK and I v UK
- English law didn’t respect dignity of transgender due to invasion and embarrassment of revealing
their birth registration
Gender Recognition Act 2004 ( GRA )
- Gender recognition certificates could be obtained to state that you could marry in acquired gender
(though did not alter the law on the capacity to marry)
- must have had gender dysphoria
- over 18 years old
- lived in acquired gender for 2 years
- intend to live in intended gender
Non-qualifying ceremony
- so far below the requirements that it cannot be a marriage at all, not even a void marriage.
Hudson v Leigh
- Factors which may be considered on a case-by-case basis
- whether the ceremony set out or purported to be a lawful marriage
- whether it bore all/enough of the hallmarks of marriage
- whether the key participants believed/intended and understood the ceremony to give rise to the
status of legal marriage
- reasonable perceptions understanding and beliefs of those attending
Attorney General v Akhter [2020] EWCA Civ 122
- wedding took place in restaurant (knowing it would not be legal) then failed to have civil ceremony
later to make it legal
- HELD: Wasn’t a deliberate failure to comply but had merely failed to comply with certain
formalities therefore a non-marriage
Void marriage
Matrimonial causes Act 1973, s11 ( MCA )
- The marriage never existed in the eyes of the law
- Lack of capacity (see above)
- S49 MA - marriage will only be void if the parties knowingly and wilfully disregard them
- Decree of nullity - states that the marriage is void - may provided financial relief.
