Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Preface to the Sixteenth Edition
- Preface to The Seventeenth Edition
- Preface to the Eighteenth Edition
- Contents
- Index of cases
- Index to the principal statutes
- List of principal books cited
- BOOK I GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS
- BOOK II DEFINITIONS OF PARTICULAR CRIMES
- CHAPTER VII HOMICIDE
- CHAPTER VIII OFFENCES AGAINST THE PERSON THAT ARE NOT FATAL
- CHAPTER IX BIGAMY
- CHAPTER X CRIMINAL LIBEL
- CHAPTER XI OFFENCES AGAINST PROPERTY
- CHAPTER XII BURGLARY AND HOUSEBREAKING
- CHAPTER XIII STEALING
- CHAPTER XIV EMBEZZLEMENT
- CHAPTER XV FRAUDULENT CONVERSION
- CHAPTER XVI CHEATS PUNISHABLE AT COMMON LAW
- CHAPTER XVII FALSE PRETENCES
- CHAPTER XVIII RECEIVING STOLEN PROPERTY
- CHAPTER XIX OTHER OFFENCES INVOLVING FRAUD
- CHAPTER XX FORGERY
- CHAPTER XXI OFFENCES AGAINST THE STATE
- CHAPTER XXII CONSPIRACY AND INDUSTRIAL DISPUTES
- CHAPTER XXIII PERJURY AND OTHER OFFENCES AGAINST PUBLIC JUSTICE
- CHAPTER XXIV OFFENCES AGAINST INTERNATIONAL LAW
- CHAPTER XXV OFFENCES OF VAGRANCY
- BOOK III MODES OF JUDICIAL PROOF
- BOOK IV CRIMINAL PROCEDURE
- Appendix I The meaning of ‘credit’
- Appendix II II Rules as to admission of evidence which reveals to the jury facts discreditable to the person accused
- Appendix III III Forms of indictment
- Index
CHAPTER IX - BIGAMY
from BOOK II - DEFINITIONS OF PARTICULAR CRIMES
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2016
- Frontmatter
- Preface to the Sixteenth Edition
- Preface to The Seventeenth Edition
- Preface to the Eighteenth Edition
- Contents
- Index of cases
- Index to the principal statutes
- List of principal books cited
- BOOK I GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS
- BOOK II DEFINITIONS OF PARTICULAR CRIMES
- CHAPTER VII HOMICIDE
- CHAPTER VIII OFFENCES AGAINST THE PERSON THAT ARE NOT FATAL
- CHAPTER IX BIGAMY
- CHAPTER X CRIMINAL LIBEL
- CHAPTER XI OFFENCES AGAINST PROPERTY
- CHAPTER XII BURGLARY AND HOUSEBREAKING
- CHAPTER XIII STEALING
- CHAPTER XIV EMBEZZLEMENT
- CHAPTER XV FRAUDULENT CONVERSION
- CHAPTER XVI CHEATS PUNISHABLE AT COMMON LAW
- CHAPTER XVII FALSE PRETENCES
- CHAPTER XVIII RECEIVING STOLEN PROPERTY
- CHAPTER XIX OTHER OFFENCES INVOLVING FRAUD
- CHAPTER XX FORGERY
- CHAPTER XXI OFFENCES AGAINST THE STATE
- CHAPTER XXII CONSPIRACY AND INDUSTRIAL DISPUTES
- CHAPTER XXIII PERJURY AND OTHER OFFENCES AGAINST PUBLIC JUSTICE
- CHAPTER XXIV OFFENCES AGAINST INTERNATIONAL LAW
- CHAPTER XXV OFFENCES OF VAGRANCY
- BOOK III MODES OF JUDICIAL PROOF
- BOOK IV CRIMINAL PROCEDURE
- Appendix I The meaning of ‘credit’
- Appendix II II Rules as to admission of evidence which reveals to the jury facts discreditable to the person accused
- Appendix III III Forms of indictment
- Index
Summary
Section I. Definition
It seems appropriate to discuss bigamy in close association with the offences contained in the preceding chapter, for although bigamy was originally an ecclesiastical offence based upon the broad ground of its ‘involving an outrage upon public decency by the profanation of a solemn ceremony’ and was first made a felony by an Act of 1603 which seems to have similarly regarded it, yet at the present day the substantial justification for retaining it as a serious crime is that in many cases it may cause great suffering to an innocent party to the bigamous marriage. It is now governed by the Offences against the Person Act, 1861, s. 57. The word ‘bigamy’ properly means being married twice but in the crime as now existing, it is employed as synonymous with polygamy, or having a plurality of wives at one time.
The offence is committed when a person
(a) being married
(b) goes through a legally recognized ceremony of marriage with another person
(c) whilst the original wife or husband is still living;
(d) unless
(i) the second marriage is contracted elsewhere than in England and Ireland by any other than a subject of the Crown; or
(ii) the first marriage has been legally dissolved by divorce; or
(iii) the first marriage has been declared void by a competent court; or
(iv) the original husband or wife has been continually absent, for the space of seven years then last past, from the person marrying a second time and shall not have been known by such person to be living within that time.
(a) The first marriage
171. To sustain an indictment for bigamy the first marriage must have been valid according to the law of the domicile of the parties, so far as concerns their personal capacity to marry; and according to the law of the place of celebration, so far as concerns the ceremonial form. The first marriage must be proved to the satisfaction of the jury; a presumption is not enough.
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- Information
- Kenny's Outlines of Criminal Law , pp. 214 - 220Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2013