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Bigamy

Article Discussion

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File:Elkanah and his two wives.jpg
Elkanah and his two wives

Template:Criminal lawTemplate:About In a culture where only monogamous relationships are legally recognized, bigamy is the act of entering into a marriage with one person while still legally married to another.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> A legal or de facto separation of the couple does not alter their marital status as married persons. In the case of a person in the process of divorcing their spouse, that person is taken to be legally married until such time as the divorce becomes final or absolute under the law of the relevant jurisdiction. Bigamy laws do not apply to couples in a de facto or cohabitation relationship,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> or that enter such relationships when one is legally married. If the prior marriage is for any reason void, the couple is not married, and hence each party is free to marry another without falling foul of the bigamy laws.

Bigamy is a crime in most countries that recognise only monogamous marriages. When it occurs in this context often neither the first nor second spouse is aware of the other. In countries that have bigamy laws, with a few exceptions (such as Egypt and Iran), consent from a prior spouse makes no difference to the legality of the second marriage, which is usually considered void.

History of anti-bigamy lawsEdit

Even before Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire, Diocletian and Maximian passed strict anti-polygamy laws in 285 AD that mandated monogamy as the only form of legal marital relationship, as had traditionally been the case in classical Greece and Rome.Template:Citation needed In 393, the Roman Emperor Theodosius I issued an imperial edict to extend the ban on polygamy to Jewish communities. In 1000, Rabbi Gershom ben Judah ruled polygamy inadmissible within Ashkenazi Jewish communities living in a Christian environment.

Legal situationEdit

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File:Wartburg-Philipp.von.Hessen.JPG
Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse, was exposed as a bigamist in 1540 by his sister, Elisabeth

Most western countries do not recognise polygamous marriages, and consider bigamy a crime. Several countries also prohibit people from living a polygamous lifestyle. This is the case with the United States where the criminalisation of a polygamous lifestyle originated as anti-Mormon laws, although they are rarely enforced.<ref> Template:Cite news</ref> De facto polygamy is illegal under US federal law, the Edmunds Act.

In diplomatic law, consular spouses from polygamous countries are sometimes exempt from a general prohibition on polygamy in host countries. In some such countries, only one spouse of a polygamous diplomat may be accredited, however.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

By country and regionEdit

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  • Australia: Illegal. Up to five years' imprisonment.<ref name=MarrAct94>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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  • Belgium: Illegal. Five to ten years' imprisonment.<ref>"strafwetboek" article 391</ref>
  • Brazil: Illegal. Two to six years' imprisonment.<ref>Penal code of Brazil, Art. 235</ref>
  • Canada: Illegal. Up to five years' imprisonment.<ref>Criminal Code, sect 290, 291.</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

  • China: Illegal. Up to two years' imprisonment, and up to three years for bigamy with soldiers (but tolerated for some minorities, such as Tibetans, in some rural areas in the south-west).Template:Citation needed
  • Colombia: Illegal with exceptions (such as religion). Although bigamy no longer exists as a lone figure in the Colombian judicial code, marrying someone new without dissolving an earlier marriage may yield to other felonies such as civil status forgery or suppression of information.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Egypt: Legal for men if first wife consents.
  • Eritrea: Illegal. Up to five years' imprisonment.
  • Germany: Illegal. Up to three years' imprisonment.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

  • Ghana: Illegal. Up to six months' imprisonment.
  • Hong Kong: Illegal. Up to seven years' imprisonment.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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  • Iceland: Illegal.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

|CitationClass=web }}; {{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The Director of Public Prosecutions has discretion and rarely prosecutes.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Catholic canon law permits a second marriage if the first was in a UK register office or annulled by the church; the state considered such marriages bigamous without a civil annulment (more restricted than a church annulment) or divorce (illegal from 1937 until 1996) and two cases in the 1960s led to suspended sentences.<ref>Template:Cite book; Template:Cite journal</ref> The 1861 act replaced an 1829 act<ref>10 Geo 4 c.34 s.26, repealed by the Statute Law Revision Act 1861; see Template:Cite book</ref> which in turn replaced acts of 1725 and 1635.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

  • Iran: Legal for men with consent of first wife. Rarely practised.
  • Israel: Illegal for members of each confessional community. Up to five years' imprisonment.<ref>Penal Law Amendment (Bigamy) Law, 5719 (1959), which applies to members of each confessional community, including the Jewish and Muslim. "The English Law of Bigamy in a Multi-Confessional Society: The Israel Experience" by P Shifman.</ref>
  • Italy: Illegal. Up to five years' imprisonment.<ref>Article 556 of Italian Penal Code.</ref>
  • Libya: Legal for men with conditions.
  • Malaysia: Illegal for non-Muslims under federal jurisdiction. Under section 494 of Chapter XX of the Penal Code, non-Muslim offenders found guilty of bigamy or polygamy can be punished up to seven years' imprisonment. Bigamy or polygamy is legal only for Muslim men with restrictions under state jurisdiction, rarely practised.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

|CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Also Civil Code of Romania, art 273.</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

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On indictment, up to seven years' imprisonment<ref>The Offences against the Person Act 1861 (24 & 25 Vict. c.100), section 57; the Criminal Justice Act 1948 (11 & 12 Geo.6 c.58), section 1(1)</ref> or on summary conviction up to six months' imprisonment, or to a fine of a prescribed sum, or to both.<ref>The Magistrates' Courts Act 1980 (c.43), section 32(1) Template:Webarchive</ref>
  • United States: Illegal in every state. Up to five years' imprisonment. (see Polygamy in North America.)
  • Uzbekistan: Illegal. Up to three years of imprisonment and a fine of 50 to 150 monthly wage installments. Women are not punished if they marry a man who has another unknown wife.

ReferencesEdit

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External linksEdit

Template:Close plural relationships Template:Types of marriages Template:Polygamous marriage Template:Authority control

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