The state has taken too casual an approach. Of course a person’s capacity to marry should be checked
A brave woman, Daphne Franks, wants to reform some of the laws connected with marriage. Since 2016, when her mother died and it emerged that she had secretly wed, Ms Franks has become a spokesperson for victims of “predatory marriage”. The term originates in Canada, where several states have altered their laws to insert safeguards aimed at protecting vulnerable people from being coerced into unions to which they do not have the capacity to consent. In 2018, Ms Franks’s MP, Fabian Hamilton, tried to use a private member’s bill to change the law in England and Wales along similar lines. The bill attracted support but ran out of time.
Legislation already exists to protect some of those who might be coerced into marrying. Forced marriage has been illegal in England, Wales and Scotland since 2014 (and is illegal in Northern Ireland under separate legislation). This most commonly involves people who are unable to consent due to a learning disability, and sometimes involves them being sent to marry abroad. In 2019, the government’s forced marriage unit offered support in 1,355 cases.