Scots family law
Open-knowledge reference entry
Scots family law is the body of laws in Scotland which regulate certain aspects of adult relationships and the rights and obligations in respect of children.
Marriage and civil partnership
Marriage
There are two types of recognised marriage in Scotland, informal and formal. Both are equally valid under Scots law but, as of 4 May 2006, only formal marriages can now be contracted in Scotland.
Before the Marriage (Scotland) Act 1939, Scots law, following the principles of canon law, recognised three types of informal marriage. Marriage per verba de praesenti was constituted where the parties, without any need of a witness, made a mutual declaration to take each other as husband and wife. Marriage per verba de futuro subsequente copula was constituted when the parties, having agreed to marry on a future date, had sex. It has not been possible to form either of these irregular marriages since 1 July 1940. Marriage by cohabitation with habit and repute was constituted when the parties agreed to live together as husband and wife and were generally reputed to be married amongst those who knew them well. It has not been possible to form this type of marriage since 4 May 2006 but such marriages that were created before that day continue to be valid, as well as some after in certain narrow circumstances.
Formal marriages are created under and according to the requirements of the Marriage (Scotland) Act 1977.
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This entry incorporates text from “Scots family law” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.