Bigamy_Act_1603

Bigamy Act 1603

Bigamy Act 1603

United Kingdom legislation

"Bigamy Act" redirects here. For the legislation that banned bigamy in the United States, see Morrill Anti-Bigamy Act.

The Act 1 Jas. 1. c. 11,[1] sometimes called the Bigamy Act 1603,[2] the Bigamy Act 1604,[3] the Statute of Bigamy 1603[4] or the Statute of Bigamy 1604,[5][6] was an Act of the Parliament of the Kingdom of England. It created the offence of bigamy as a capital felony. Bigamy had not previously been a temporal offence (that is to say, within the jurisdiction of the common law courts as opposed to the ecclesiastical courts).[7]

Quick Facts Long title, Citation ...

Quick Facts Long title, Citation ...

Further provision was made by the Bigamy Act 1795 (35 Geo. 3. c. 67).

Section 1

... if any persons or persons within his Majesty's Dominions of England and Wales, being married, or which hereafter shall marry, do at any time after the end of the session of this present Parliament, marry any person or persons, the former husband or wife being alive ... then every such offence shall be felony ... Provided always, that neither this Act, nor anything therein contained, shall extend to any person or persons whose husband or wife shall be continually remaining beyond the seas by the space of seven years together, or whose husband or wife shall absent him or herself the one from the other by the space of seven years together, in any parts within his Majesties Dominions, the one of them not knowing the other to be living within that time.

References

  1. [1]
    This Act has never had a short title and is cited by session and chapter.
  2. [2]
    Helmholz, The Profession of Ecclesiastical Lawyers, 2019, p 167; Cornish, Banks, Mitchell, Mitchell and Probert, Law and Society in England 1750-1950, 2nd Ed, p xl; (1971) 16 Journal of the Law Society of Scotland 97; Cox, "Bigamy", Turner, A Companion to the History of Crime and Criminal Justice, 2017, p 11; Kha, A History of Divorce Law, 2020, p 82; Petterchak, "Polygamy, American Style", Sadique and Stanislas (eds), Religion, Faith and Crime, Palgrave Macmillan, 2016, p 284.
  3. [3]
    (1969) 21 Federal Practice and Procedure 61
  4. [4]
    F H Newark, "The Operation of Nullity Decrees" (1945) 8 Modern Law Review 203 at 212 and 216 (No 4, November 1945) Wiley JSTOR
  5. [5]
    Clifford, A History of Private Bill Legislation, 1885, vol 1, pp xxiii & 393; Current Law Statutes Annotated 1977, p 27/13-14.
  6. [6]
    As to the year of an Act, see Johnson, Privatised Law Reform, 2018, p 31; Johnson, Parliament, Inventions and Patents, 2018, note 1 to Introduction; Chitty's Statutes of Practical Utility, 6th Ed, 1911, vol 1, title "Act of Parliament", p 28.
  7. [7]
    R v. Taylor [1950] 2 All ER 170, CCA


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