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In a consultation paper launched this week, ‘Weddings’, the Commission suggests doing away with many of the regulations governing rituals and music that restrict choice when couples plan their wedding ceremony. For example, couples must marry in a registered building, either a place of worship or a licensed secular venue, and cannot marry outdoors, even in the garden of a licensed venue. If marrying in a secular venue, the ceremony cannot include any religious references.
Its proposed reforms are to allow weddings outdoors, for example, on beaches and in private gardens, in private homes and on cruise ships. Couples would be allowed to give notice of their wedding online or by post rather than in person. Humanists and independent celebrants would be allowed to conduct legally binding weddings, and there would be scope for the government to allow remote weddings during times of national emergency, such as another pandemic.
The Commission proposes a ‘robust system of preliminaries’ to protect against forced and sham marriages. Its proposals aim to help address the issue of religious wedding ceremonies that don’t comply with the legal requirements for marriage, which mean the couple either have to have a second civil ceremony or remain legally unmarried. The Commission proposes making it an offence for a person purporting to be an officiant misleading a couple about the effect of the ceremony.
Professor Nick Hopkins, Family Law Commissioner at the Law Commission, said: ‘The 19th century laws are not fit for purpose and stop many couples having a wedding that is meaningful and personal to them.’
The consultation closes on 3 December, and the Commission aims to publish its final report in the second half of 2021.
View the consultation at: bit.ly/31Wh3dH.
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