#ATOM Oxbridge Notes uses cookies for login, tax evidence, digital piracy prevention, business intelligence, and advertising purposes, as explained in our privacy policy. I accept Technical settings [] Someone recently bought our students are currently browsing our notes. X Mobile navigation [standard_logo-7a8125896a1e43bdb657d99c3fc80422873608d05af4f97b6fd1414f 6b730f71.png] Notes by the top 1% of students * Search * Sell notes * Law Tutors * login * My Account * Logout * Cart: (Empty) X (close) * Home * Search * Browse by category * Sell notes * Law Tutors * login * Cart: (Empty) Marriage Notes Law Notes > Family Law Notes [mortarboard-e609c1bdfa77e5e1382cd547e98b3881306ffc146e5b3272b093ab3995 d1bc1b.svg] Updates Available A more recent version of these Marriage notes – written by Oxford students – is available here. The following is a more accessble plain text extract of the PDF sample above, taken from our Family Law Notes. Due to the challenges of extracting text from PDFs, it will have odd formatting: Marriage Non-marriages, void marriages and voidable marriages The presumption of marriage * If a man and a woman live together, believe themselves to be married, and present themselves as married, the law presumes that they are legally married o The policy behind this is that the couple believes themselves should not suffer the disadvantages of not being so ? Without there being clear evidence ? In many cases, the presumption can be rebutted by showing that they do not appear on the register of marriage The differences between... * ...a void marriage and non-marriage o A void marriage is one where, although there may have been some semblance of marriage ? There is in fact a fundamental flaw in the marriage which means that it is not recognised as valid in law ? If the marriage is classed as void, the court has the power to make financial orders, redistributing property between the couple * Such powers are not available if the marriage if a nonmarriage o A non-marriage is one where there is some vague element of marriage, but is so far from actual marriage, is not even defective ? Gandhi v Patel [2002]: Indian couple married in Indian restaurant - in something of a party. * Held o That was not close enough to a marriage - there was no solemn element, just a party. o Telling the difference between the two ? Gereis v Yagoub [1997]: H and W wanted to marry in the Russian Orthodox tradition. The priest warned them that would not be a civil marriage, so this would need to be done in a civil ceremony as well. They chose just to do the religious ceremony. Ten years passed but they then separated. * Aglionby J: o This is a void marriage, not a non-marriage ? The ceremony had the hallmarks of an ordinary Christian marriage ? The parties regarded themselves to be married ? The couple held themselves out as a married couple ? Hudson v Leigh [2009]: Here there was a religious ceremony in South Africa with people watching. However they changed the words to show it was not a marriage and even announced that it was not * Held: o Purported to be a marriage? = No o Look like a marriage? = Possibly o View of officials and couple = Not marriage o View of people = Not marriage ? Therefore pointed to non-marriage * ...a void and a voidable marriage o Validity ? A void marriage is one that in the eyes of the law has never existed ? A voidable marriage exists until it has been annulled by the courts * And if it is not annulled, then it will be regarded as valid o Legitimacy of children ? A child born to the parties in a void marriage would be technically illegitimate * Unless both parties reasonably believed at the time that they were married validly ? A child born into a voidable marriage is always regarded as legitimate o Who can assert the defect ? Any interested party can challenge a void marriage ? But only one of the spouses can assert a voidable marriage is void o Public interest vs. private interests ? Herring: This tells us that void marriages are based on some conception of public interest - e.g. under age of 16 - that court will intervene on * A voidable marriage = no public policy objection, but something wrong that is important enough that if parties care about it, can end it o So no trouble if no sex - not the law's business ? But could be if one part of couple cares about it The grounds on which a marriage is void * 1. The couple are within prohibited degree of relationship o Consanguinity ? This is where the couple are related to each other in certain ways, such as: * Parent-child * Grandparent-Grandchild * Brother-Sister * Aunt-Nephew * Uncle-Niece ? This also includes half blood relationships, but not cousins. o Affinity restrictions ? Marrying a stepchild is generally not permitted unless: * (1) Both parties are over the age of 21 * (2) the younger party has not been a child of the family in relation to the other while under the age of 18 o Thus, if the step-parent has ever acted in a parental role towards a step-child, the parties can never marry. ? Marrying a parent-in-law used to be only permitted in limited circumstances, but it is now permitted * The old requirements were that o (1) Both parties are aged over 21 o (2) Both their previous spouses have now died * This was challenged by B+ L v UK: The UK argued that restrictions were necessary so as to ensure no sexual rivalry between parents and children. W and In-Law argued that there had been some cases where you could marry in these circumstances - but only with a special act of Parliament Buy the full version of these notes or essay plans and more in our Family Law Notes. 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