Common-Law Marriage in United Kingdom

Definition of Common-Law Marriage

In accordance with the work A Dictionary of Law, this is a description of Common-Law Marriage : 1. A marriage recognized as valid at common law although not complying with the usual requirements for marriage. Such marriages are only recognized today if (1) they are celebrated outside England and there is no local form of marriage reasonably available to the parties or (2) they are celebrated by military chaplains in a foreign territory (or on a ship in foreign waters), and one of the parties to the marriage is serving in the Forces in that territory. The form of marriage is a declaration that the parties take each other as husband and wife.

2. Loosely, the situation of two unmarried people living together as husband and wife (See cohabitation). In law such people are treated as unmarried, although recently they have been recognized as equivalent to married persons for purposes of protection against battering and for some provisions of the Rent Acts (such as succession to *statutory tenancies).