A critique of non-marriage

Valentine Le Grice QC 1 Hare Court:    

This article contains a critical analysis of the way in which a concept of non-marriage has been incorporated into English law. Those authorities are based on the proposition that a marriage will be a non-marriage as opposed to a void marriage if the parties have not sought to engage to the requirements of the Marriage Acts. The author argues that these authorities including the Court of Appeal decision in Sharbatly v Shagroon [2012] EWCA Civ 1507 [2013] 1 FLR 1493 have failed to pay sufficient regard to the earlier law of nullity the statutory jurisdiction of the Family Division and The Family Law Act 1986. The recent law on non-marriage means that the financially weaker spouse to such marriages will not be entitled to apply for financial relief. As the majority of applicants in other cases are women it...

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