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A Review of the Law on Marriage

Prof Rebecca Probert

Law Commission

Professor Rebecca Probert has worked as a specialist advisor with the Law Commission on a review of the law governing how and where people can marry in England and Wales. The scoping phase of the project concluded with the publication of Getting Married on 17 December 2015.

The aim of the review was to consider whether the current law provides a fair and coherent legal framework for enabling people to marry and to identify areas of the law that might benefit from reform. Since the relevant legislation is over 65 years old and is a consolidation of various statutes dating back to 1836 (and in a number of respects to 1753), this specifically drew on her knowledge of the historical context.

The scoping phase involved a preliminary study involving research into domestic and comparative law, and discussion with key stakeholders. The resulting paper explains why full-scale reform of this area of the law is needed and identifies the questions that would need to be examined to achieve such reform. Click here for further information.