British Muslim girls being forced into marriage via internet

[happyslug]

32. General rule on foreign marriages, they are treated as valid.

Thus if you get married in a country that permits marrying 12 years olds, that is considered valid in most other countries. People have moved to countries that forbid multiple wives with multiple wives, and those wives are considered legally married. Such a man can not marry more wives while in that country but existing wives are viewed as valid marriages.

This goes back to the days of slavery, a slave owner had the right to take his slave to another country that did not permit slaves, and keep those slaves. The same with marriages as young as 12, if valid in the country the marriage took place, most countries will recognize that marriage even if it had occurred in their own country the marriage would be invalid.

Thus the promise to marry can lead to a valid marriage that can lead to a unification of family immigration. This is true even if the marriage is made in a foreign country where such a marriage is legal but the married couple wants to move to a country where such a marriage would be illegal.

Unless the UK has a specific law making such foreign marriages not valid in the UK, the resulting marriage in a third country would be valid in the UK.

Please note the Common Law age of consent to marry was age 12. Pennsylvania ruled in the late 1990s that was still the age to consent to a common law marriage in Pennsylvania (entering into a Common Law Marriage was outlawed in Pennsylvania effective 1-1-2005).