Definition of Marriage under Common law

It is a voluntary union between a man and a woman for life to the exclusion of all others. It is a ceremony, which allows a man and a woman to legally cohabit and have children.

Family

A family comprises of a man, a woman and children from their marriage. This forms the nuclear family.

Family Law

• Provides supporting efforts at maintaining and strengthening the family unit.
• Recognizes that marriage involves two distinct human beings.
• Strives to prevent divorces and break up of marriages.
• Comes to the rescue and assists the parties concerned.

Pre-marriage conditions

• Parties to a marriage must be a male and a female
• Both the parties must have attained the age of 21 years
• If any of them are below 21 years of age, they should obtain the permission of their parents
• Both the parties should be of sound mind
• The parties must not be related
• Willing parties
• Must not still be married to another
• Resident or domiciled in Malaysia
• Notice of marriage to registrar

Importance of Marriage Registration

If the marriage isn’t registered it would be an invalid marriage; the legal status of a common law wife is equivalent to that of a ‘mistress’ after 1982. This means that the woman is not legally permitted to entitlement of the property of the common law husband, and cannot lay claim to her husband’s property after his death.

In short, for the wife to get entitlement of her husband’s property, and lay claim to his property even after his death, the marriage should be registered.

Void Marriages

A marriage is void if:
• At the time of marriage either party was already lawfully married
• Male person was under 18 years of age and female was above 16 but below 18 without a special license by the Chief Minister
• Parties within prohibited degrees of relationship

Voidable Marriages

A Voidable Marriage is a situation in which the,

• Marriage has not been consummated owing to the incapacity of either party to consummate it.
• Respondent's willful refusal to consummate
• Parties did not validly consent-duress, mistake, unsoundness of mind or otherwise
• Though capable of giving consent, is mentally disordered within the Mental Disorder Ordinance 1952, hence unfit to marry
• Respondent suffering from venereal disease in a communicable form
• At the time of marriage respondent was pregnant by some other person than
the petitioner

[ Back ]