The recognition of polyamorous marriages in England and Wales

The House of Commons Library has published a briefing paper considering when polygamous marriages might be legally recognised. 

Currently to be recognised as legally valid all marriages which take place in the United Kingdom must be monogamous and must be carried out in accordance with the requirements of the relevant legislation.  

For a polygamous marriage to be considered valid in the UK the parties must be domiciled in a country where polygamous marriage is permitted and must have entered into the marriage in a country which permits polygamy. 

There is some anecdotal evidence of people entering into a form of polygamous marriage in the UK through religious ceremonies that are not registered by the state and are not recognised under UK law. Parties to these relationships do not have the same rights as legally married couples such as access to financial remedies on divorce or automatic inheritance rights on the death of one of the parties. Calls have been made for all marriages taking place in England and Wales to be registered as a way of addressing this issue – it would not be possible to register a polygamous...