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Marriage Laws in England and Wales Out of Date – Law Commission

Out of date marriage laws

Currently, In England and Wales, legally recognised weddings can only take place in a church or a licensed venue with an officiant and prescribed wording. This seriously limits choices for engaged couples as to how they enter into their married life. In Scotland and Ireland couples can elect to have a humanist wedding but whilst humanist funerals are legal in England and Wales, weddings are not.

During the pandemic, this limited choice has been further highlighted as whilst the world has been able to make optimum use of technology to enable meetings, interviews, family get togethers and other ceremonies such as funerals to take place, or to move them to an outdoor setting to comply with COVID restrictions, couples intending to marry have had to cancel their big day and wait until the venue they have booked is able to re-open.

The Law Commission is looking into this issue and proposing changes which would allow couples in England and Wales to marry anywhere, including outdoors and possibly on line. Professor Nick Hopkins, family law commissioner at the Law Commission said the marriage laws in England and Wales had “not kept up with changes in society”. This is rather an understatement as some of the current marriage laws are incredibly ancient, dating back to the 19th century and so really are in need of reconsidering.

These changes, if implemented, would give couples the freedom to arrange a marriage ceremony with true meaning for them rather than having to try to bend the already existing marriage laws to make their special day personal. This has to be a far more positive way to begin married life.

At present, if a couple wishes to arrange a wedding to suit them personally, they can do so but it would not be recognised as a legal marriage unless they also undertook a civil ceremony prior to their personal ceremony. This detracts from their special day as by the time it arrives, they are already married and the excitement of becoming a married couple is tarnished.

The Review was announced in June 2019, publishing of the findings is awaited. The Ministry of Justice has said it will respond one the findings have been received. Family lawyers in Coventry will be waiting with baited breath.