The Formal Sufficiency of Foreign Marriages

Abstract

It has long been a general rule of common law that a marriage is valid only if formalized in a manner recognised by the law of the place of celebration. This rule is continued in Australian law by explicit statutory provision. In this Article Mr Fine suggests that in Australian Law the category of exceptions to the lex loci celebrationis requirement is significantly wider than in the common law of England. He also finds that in situations outside the scope of the requirement, Australian courts should apply the parties’ domiciliary law to decide formal validity—not the law of the forum, though the latter is used in English courts as the law of second resort.