Skip to main content

Article 20 - Requirements for Marriage

  1. A marriage may be contracted only where each of the following requirements is satisfied:
  1. Both parties have attained the age of eighteen years, or have attained the age of sixteen years and have obtained the consent required by paragraph 2
  2. Both parties give their free and full consent to the marriage
  3. Neither party is currently married or bound by a registered partnership that has not been dissolved
  4. The parties are not related within the prohibited degrees set out in paragraph 3
  5. Neither party is subject to a declaration of incapacity that removes the capacity to marry.
  1. A person who has attained the age of sixteen but has not yet attained the age of eighteen may marry only with:
  1. The written consent of both parents exercising parental authority, or of the guardian, or, where only one parent exercises parental authority, the written consent of that parent
  2. The authorisation of the Royal Chancellery, which shall be granted only where the Chancellery is satisfied that the marriage is in the interest and welfare of the minor, having regard to all the circumstances.
  1. Marriage is prohibited between:
  1. Persons related in the direct line, whether by blood or by adoption, without limit of degree
  2. Siblings and half-siblings, whether by blood or by adoption
  3. Such other degrees of relationship as the Sovereign may prescribe by decree.

  1. The Royal Chancellery may, upon application and for grave and exceptional reasons, grant a dispensation from the impediment of relationship set out in paragraph 3(c), but not from the impediments in paragraphs 3(a) or 3(b).

  2. Where a requirement of this Article is not satisfied, the marriage is void or voidable in accordance with Article 22.