Marriage - Legal Aspects..

  
     
  Legal aspects  
  Giving Notice For a marriage in any venue or religious building other than the Church of England or the Church in Wales, you are legally required to ‘give Notice’ of your intention to marry to the Superintendent Registrar in your district. Then your Notice of marriage is displayed at the register office for a period of fifteen clear days. Your notice of marriage is valid for 12 months.

To give Notice, you have to have lived in the registration district for seven days – if you live in different registration districts you must each give Notice in your own area. You need to attend personally – no one can do so on your behalf – and you will need to provide proof of identity, for example a Birth Certificate, Passport, or Aliens Registration Certificate and proof of address such as a Driving Licence or Council Tax bill. If either of you have been married before, you will need to show proof that the marriage has ended – such as the Decree Absolute if you divorced in England or Wales, or the Death Certificate if your former partner is deceased. You must allow at least 15 days before your marriage, the length of time for which the Notice must be publicly displayed at the register office before your marriage can take place.

For Scottish marriages, see http://www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/regscot/getting-married-in-scotland/index.html
For marriages in Northern Ireland, see http://www.groni.gov.uk/index.htm		  
     
  Getting Married Abroad  
  If you are thinking about getting married abroad, you should contact the appropriate embassy or consulate so that they can advise you of the formalities and documentation required by that country. Specialist tour operators can also help guide you through the legal requirements.

http://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/marriages/where-can-i-marry/getting--married--abroad.asp (England and Wales)

http://www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/regscot/getting-married-in-scotland/i-want-to-get-married-
abroad-what-documents-will-i-need-to-provide.html (Scotland)


  
  Is your overseas marriage legal in the UK?  
  If you got married in another country and your marriage is legally valid in the country where it was performed, it is recognised as a legal marriage in the UK too.

If you married abroad it’s wise to check that your marriage was officially registered in that country. In many countries you need to have civil registration in addition to a religious ceremony for a marriage to be legally recognised.

If you want to have another marriage ceremony in the UK after marrying abroad , be sure to provide any documents relating to the marriage when you give your notice. 		 
     
  Interfaith marriages in International law  
 

In most cases a marriage that is legitimate according to the law of the country in which it takes place is recognised elsewhere. There are differences in family and personal law around the world however that may affect people in interfaith marriages in particular.

• if you are a dual national, a citizen of another country or you intend living in another country it is a good idea to get specific advice about the law in that country, from the embassy or foreign office website.
Also see http://www.fco.gov.uk for country profiles, services, information on living abroad

• if you are a national of a Muslim country it is likely that whatever other ceremony you may have you will also need to have evidence of an Islamic ceremony for your UK marriage to be recognised as legitimate in your own country. It is also important for both of you to get informed about how the status of non-citizens or persons of minority faith in local law. In some countries non-nationals or religious minorities may find their legal status is not the same, particularly in the event of divorce, or when one of you dies.

www.law.emory.edu.cms/site – comprehensive guide to law of Muslim countries
www.wluml.org Women Living under Muslim Law www.soas.ac.uk/Centres/IslamicLaw/Home

• Some forms of marriage practised in Britain may not be familiar in overseas jurisdictions, so for example marriage in the Church of England by licence is more internationally recognisable than the alternative of marriage by banns. Just as in the UK it’s important to check that your marriage is legally registered, as in many countries a civil ceremony or registration is required in addition to a religious ceremony.

  
     
  Prenuptial agreements  
  ‘I’ve been asked to sign an affidavit that I agree to our children being brought up in my partner’s religion, even if we get divorced. They won’t let us have a religious wedding if I don’t. What does the law say on this?’

Prenuptial agreements are recognised as legally enforceable in some countries, but not currently in the UK, although they may be used as evidence of a couple’s understanding at the time of their marriage. They most commonly deal with financial issues.

An Islamic marriage is a form of contract, and consists of the agreement to the marriage itself and to the dowry that the husband gives to the wife. It can also include a statement of additional conditions, rights and responsibilities that the couple have agreed to. It’s increasingly common around the world and in the UK for the Islamic contract of marriage (‘aqd al-nikah) to include this kind of pre-nuptial agreement .

In some mosques a pre-nuptial agreement on the Muslim identification of children is required before an interfaith marriage is allowed to be performed. If the marriage breaks down in future an agreement like this would be taken into account in the UK courts as a reflection of the couples’ state of mind and intention at the time of the marriage; but it wouldn’t be the only factor taken into account in decisions about child custody and related issues. This is because the courts in the UK could not favour the conditions required by one partner’s faith over another. Also the fact that the couple are obliged to make this agreement in order to have the religious ceremony means that it could be seen as having been made under duress or emotional pressure and not therefore legally sustainable. 		 
     
 

People’s attitudes to faith and identity often change in the previously unexplored context of an interfaith relationship or through the experience of being a parent and in the case of marriage breakdown the function of the law is not to penalise change but to try to adjudicate a fair and satisfactory resolution of the consequences.