David Hodson on International Family Law: Farewell to British cruising

As a Sotonian born and bred of the city of Southampton I express my huge sadness today that Cunard shipping company is no longer registered as a British shipping fleet especially registered out of the Port of Southampton as it has been for many decades. The sadness is aggravated for me as an international family lawyer because the apparent reason given is that Cunard want to undertake weddings on board their ships and cannot do so under English law if they are British registered.

English marriage law is very historic going back to Lord Hardwicke's Marriage Act of 1753 brought in to overcome many sham marriage practices dishonest priests and dubious solemnisation of relationships. To overcome the past problems it went out of its way to create openness and transparency in the organisation of the wedding being found in features such as the public giving of notice the reading of the banns the requirement for weddings...

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