Britain's Law Commission last week issued a 458-page Consultation Paper on Weddings Law (full text). The document titled Getting Married, proposes for public comment significant changes in laws relating to marriage in England and Wales. The document explains:
1.3 Weddings law in England and Wales is in desperate need of reform.
1.4 The law is ancient, with most of the current rules dating from the 18th and 19th centuries. The rules were devised at a time when virtually everyone lived, married and died within a single community, and when most people shared the same faith and beliefs; indeed, religion would have been the dominating force in most people’s lives. Weddings today are still governed by this system. The law is based on a way of life that bears little resemblance to life in England and Wales today.
1.5 Unsurprisingly, then, the law does not work for many. It restricts how couples are permitted to celebrate their weddings, for historical rather than current policy reasons.
3.4 ...[T]he scheme we provisionally propose is based on regulation of the officiant. That would mark a significant shift in focus from the current law, under which regulation is generally based around the building in which the wedding takes place. With very few exceptions, under our proposed scheme, the same rules would apply to all weddings. Again, that is different to the current law ... under which different rules often apply to Anglican weddings, Jewish and Quaker weddings, other religious weddings, to civil weddings that take place in a register office, and to civil weddings that take place on approved premises.
Law & Religion UK reports on these developments.
