Marriage in Europe

Definition of Marriage

Marriage is the voluntary union for life of one man and one woman to the exclusion of all others, subject to the rules as to consanguinity or affinity, and capacity to perform the duties of matrimony prevailing in the place of domicile of the parties, and subject to the formalities required either by the law of England or the place where the marriage takes place.
Marriage is not a contract, but the agreement to marry is. It creates a special personal relationship and confers a certain status.
Under the canon law, adopted by the common law, marriage could be by (1) a public celebration of the marriage service in a church, known as a celebration in facie ecclesicc ; (2) by a clandestine celebration anywhere conducted by one in priest’s orders. The statute 26 Geo. 2, c. 33 (Lord Hardwicke’s Act), provided that any marriage celebrated after 1754 without publication of banns or licence duly granted or celebrated elsewhere than in the parish church or public chapel should be null and void in the absence of a special licence from the Archbishop of Canterbury.
The Marriage Act, 1823, made further provision for the celebration of marriage, and the Marriage Act, 1836, introduced the certificate of the superintendent registrar of marriages.
Marriage was formerly also the right of a guardian by tenure to bestow hie ward in marriage

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Definition of Marriage is, temporally, from A Concise Law Dictionary (1927). This page needs to be proofread.

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