Reforming Validity and Criminal Offences

This chapter turns to the fourth and fifth reform proposals highlighted in chapter 7. While the proposals discussed in the last chapter were directly concerned with how people get married, the proposals discussed here are concerned with related laws which concern the effect and regulation of marriage: looking at the law on what constitutes a valid marriage and possible criminal offences. The proposals discussed in the previous chapter will not be sufficient to overcome the problem of unregistered religious marriages which are entered unwittingly or involuntarily. The proposals discussed here and in the chapter 9 serve as backstops to provide further protection in such a scenario.