R
12008.
No. 2A.
(GENERAL.)
། ། ། ་། །
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
وا
سلت
Reference :-
C.O.885
16 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
FOREIGN OFFICE TO LAW OFFICERS.
[Marriages at foreign Embassies and Consulates in England. How far légal.]
GENTLEMEN,
Foreign Office,
December 20, 1904. I HAVE the honour, by direction of the Marquess of Lansdowne, to transmit to you the accompanying papers, noted below, respecting an inquiry made by Baron Bildt, the Swedish-Norwegian Minister at this Court, as to whether the new Swedish Law of the 8th July, 1904, regulating the solemnization of marriages between Swedish subjects by Swedish Diplomatic and Consular officers abroad can be put in force in this country
without coming into conflict with local jurisdiction.
No definite rule ever appears to have been laid down on the subject of Embassy and Consular marriages solemnized in this country by foreign officials.
The Act 4 Geo. IV, cap. 76, section 21, attaches a heavy penalty to the solemnization of marriages in this country by any person in any other place than a church, or such public chapel wherein banns may be lawfully published, and section 22 of the same Act purposes provides that marriages so solemnized shall be deemed null and void for all whatsoever.
or Legation in this country,
As regards marriages performed in a foreign Embassy the question of diplomatic privilege arises, and upon this point some divergence of opinion would seem to exist. The late Lord Chief Justice of the Queen's Bench, Sir A. Cockburn, in a Memorandum attached to the Report of the Royal Commission of 1876 on fugitive slaves, held that a foreign Ambassador was in all respects exempt from the law, both civil and criminal, and therefore immune from all penalties.
Hammick, in "The Marriage Law of England," expresses a very similiar opinion but, with regard to the recognition of marriages solemnized at a foreign Embassy, he inclines to the view that a marriage between a British subject and a foreigner so solem- nized would not by itself be recognised as legally binding upon the British subject for civil purposes in this country.
The Royal Commission on the Law of Marriage, in their Report af July 1868, touched upon the subject of marriages in foreign Embassies in England in cases where one of the parties to the marriage was a British subject, but they said nothing as to cases where both parties were subjects of the country in whose Embassy the marriage was solemnized: whether or not they considered the latter class as valid can only be gathered, if at all, by inference.
None of these opinions apply to marriages solemnized at foreign Consulates in this country, but the question of their validity has been raised on two occasions in recent years. In 1890 it came up in connection with a new Brazilian marriage law under which Consular marriages in Brazil could be recognized by the local authorities in cases where reciprocity was given in Foreign States, and in 1897 the Belgian Minister made similar inquiries as to the validity of Belgian Consular marriages in Great Britain. In neither case was any definite opinion expressed. In 1890 the point was referred to the Registrar- General, who replied that marriages at foreign Consulates in this country were entirely beyond his cognizance, and that the statutes which he administered did not recognize them in any way, and made no provision for making them valid in England; and accor- dingly in 1897, in response to his inquiry, the Belgian Minister was informed in the sense of the Registrar-General's reply. No mention was made, however, of the Act 4 Geo. IV, which purports to inflict penalties on persons solemnizing marriages in this country otherwise than in accordance with the provisions of that statute, and it seems difficult to avoid the conclusion that a foreign Consul who enjoys no diplomatic privilege would, by performing such a marriage, render himself liable to those penalties, even though diplo matic privilege prevented proceedings being taken in the case of a marriage at à foreign Embassy or Legation.
"
No question is asked by Baron Bildt with regard to the recognition by English law of marriages solemnized by Swedish officials under the Swedish law now in question, but it would be of material assistance to Lord Lansdowne in determining what course to
25 Wt 5,05 D&S
5 21191