The Continuing Muslim Marriage Conundrum: The Law of England and Wales on Religious Marriage and Non-Marriage in the United Kingdom

It is argued that the concept of non-marriage, referring to religious marriages that are neither valid or void, and incomplete in terms of adhering to the formalities of marriage-must be recognised in law. However, the application of this category, in recent years, especially to British Muslim nikah...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of Muslim minority affairs Vol. 40; no. 1; pp. 148 - 162
Main Author Vora, Vishal
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Abingdon Routledge 02.01.2020
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Subjects
Cohabitation
Courts
Declarations
Family law
Inappropriateness
Justice
Law
Marriage
Marriage Act
Marriage law
Muslim marriage
Muslims
nikah
non-marriage
Religion
religious marriage
void marriage
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Summary:It is argued that the concept of non-marriage, referring to religious marriages that are neither valid or void, and incomplete in terms of adhering to the formalities of marriage-must be recognised in law. However, the application of this category, in recent years, especially to British Muslim nikah-only marriages seems "inappropriate", especially when the factual matrix is taken into account. This article will analyse the current usage of non-marriage declarations by the English court and make the case for reverting back to the position taken by Justice Bodey in the case of Hudson v Leigh (Status of non-marriage) [2009] EWHC 1306 (Fam), which has more recently been the position taken in Akhter v Khan [2018] EWFC 54. Empirical research continues to demonstrate that for British Muslims, the traditional form of religious marriage remains vital not only for the partners themselves, but for their families and extended community network. For any proposed changes to marriage laws to be effective, the issue of what is meaningful to all those involved must be taken into account. This article suggests that, in the interim, a simple mechanism in the form of cohabitation rights recognition could put an end to the injustices and indeed the advantageous status that non-marriage affords one party during martial breakdown.
ISSN:1360-2004
1469-9591
DOI:10.1080/13602004.2020.1744839