Marriage

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(No Transcript)
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MarriageDefinitionRequirements for a valid
marriageBars to marriageVoid and voidable
marriageMarriage as a contract
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Marriage in the past

• historically the English Common Law required
  nothing for the celebration of a marriage beyond
  the declared agreement of the parties

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Common-law marriage

• A marriage that takes legal effect without
  licence or ceremony marriage by habit and
  repute
• traces its roots to the English ecclesiastical
  courts, which until 1753 recognized a kind of
  informal marriage known as sponsalia per verba de
  praesenti, which was entered into without
  ceremony
• Authorized in 11 states in the US as the full
  equivalent of a ceremonial marriage
• Also consensual marriage, informal marriage

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The formalities today

• A marriage must be celebrated in the presence of
  a clergyman of the Church of England, or (since
  1836) of a Registrar of Marriages, or (since
  1898) of an authorized person
• Two persons must be present as witnesses

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Definitions

• a voluntary union for life of one man and one
  woman to the exclusion of all others
• a contract based upon a voluntary private
  agreement by a man and a woman to become husband
  and wife
• act or state of being joined as husband and wife

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Requirements for a valid marriage

• Monogamous (not necessarily one man and one woman
  same-sex marriage made legal in 2002 in the
  Netherlands)
• For life (the intention of both parties must be a
  union for life, regardless of the availability of
  divorce)
• Voluntary (as any other contract, it must be
  entered into voluntarily, without coercion)

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Conditions for a valid marriage

• 1) parties legally capable of contracting to
  marry
• 2) mutual consent or agreement
• 3) an actual contract in the form prescribed by
  law

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Bars to marriage

• Youth (the age of consent now 18, before 1969 it
  was 21)
• Consanguinity (close blood relation)

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Void marriage

• If either party is under sixteen
• If parties are related by blood
• 1. Ascendants and descendants, e.g. parent and
  child, grandparent and grandchild
• 2.Brother and sister, uncle and niece, nephew and
  aunt
• 3. Persons who, by reason of the previous
  marriage of one of them, are related changed by
  the Marriage Act of 1986

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Marriage Act, 1986

• A man may marry his stepmother, or a woman her
  stepfather, provided that the younger person is
  aged at least 21 and has not at any time before
  reaching the age of 18 lived as a child of the
  family of the older person
• Marriage between in-laws also permitted

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Bigamy

• A marriage celebrated between two persons, one of
  whom is at the time validly married, is void
• The person who knowingly enters into such a
  marriage is guilty of bigamy

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Other types of void marriages

• Marriages between parties who are not male and
  female
• A polygamous marriage entered into outside
  England and Wales, if either party was at the
  time domiciled in England and Wales

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Voidable marriage

• Valid initially, but may be set aside because of
• Lack of due consent
• Duress (coercion)
• Mistake as to identity
• Mental incapacity (unsound mind)

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Marriage as a contract

• Marriage is a contract, but it is not like other
  contracts because
• The parties cannot agree on the rules governing
  marriage
• The parties cannot agree what is to be regarded
  as a breach of contract (because it must be for
  life), nor what compensation should be paid in
  case of such a breach (a different type of
  contract regulates this prenuptial agreement)

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Vocabulary

• Ecclesiastical courts crkveni sudovi
• Registrar maticar
• Coercion (duress) prisila, prinuda
• Consent pristanak, privola
• Bars to marriage zapreke braku
• Consanguinity krvno srodstvo
• Dissolution of marriage razvrgnuce braka

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Vocabulary II

• Valid marriage važeci brak
• Void marriage ništavan brak
• Voidable marriage poništiv (pobojan) brak
• Breach of contract raskid ugovora
• Prenuptial agreement predbracni ugovor

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Comprehension check

• Complete the following sentences
• A mariage entered into under duress is
  ________________.
• Bars to marriage are youth and ________________.
• A valid English marriage must be monogamous, for
  life and _____________.