Recognition of Foreign Marriages
Part VA deals with recognition of foreign marriages.
This division reflects the Act's tendency to seek to uphold the validity of marriages. Marriages will be recognised if they were valid in the country where they were performed if the marriage would be legal under Australian law. The foreign marriage certificate is proof of marriage and marriages need not be registered. Section 88EA however provides that marriages performed in another country between a man and another man or a woman and another woman must not be recognised as a marriage in Australia.
As a marriage must be legal under Australian law, a foreign marriage will not be recognised if a person was already married (or the overseas divorce is not recognised in Australia), a person was under 18 (subject to some exceptions), the persons were siblings or parent/child, or there was duress or fraud.
Read more about this topic: Marriage Act 1961 (Australia)
Famous quotes containing the words recognition of, recognition, foreign and/or marriages:
“Admiration. Our polite recognition of another’s resemblance to ourselves.”
—Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914)
“Democracy and equality try to deny ... the mystic recognition of difference and innate priority, the joy of obedience and the sacred responsibility of authority.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)
“For my name and memory I leave it to men’s charitable speeches, and to foreign nations, and the next ages.”
—Francis Bacon (1561–1626)
“The happiest two-job marriages I saw during my research were ones in which men and women shared the housework and parenting. What couples called good communication often meant that they were good at saying thanks to one another for small aspects of taking care of the family. Making it to the school play, helping a child read, cooking dinner in good spirit, remembering the grocery list,... these were silver and gold of the marital exchange.”
—Arlie Hochschild (20th century)