The
lex loci celebrationis is the
Latin term for "law of the place where the marriage is
celebrated" in the
conflict of
laws. Conflict is the branch of
public
law regulating all
lawsuits involving a
"foreign" law element where a difference in result will occur
depending on which laws are applied.
Explanation
When a case comes before a
court and all the
main features of the case are local, the court will apply the
lex fori, the prevailing municipal
law, to decide the case. But if there are
"foreign" elements to the case, the forum court may be obliged
under the conflict of laws system to consider:
- whether the forum court has jurisdiction to hear the case (see the problem
of forum shopping);
- it must then characterise the issues, i.e.
allocate the factual basis of the case to its relevant legal
classes; and
- then apply the choice of law rules
to decide which law is to be applied to each class.
The
lex loci celebrationis is a choice of law rule applied
to cases testing the validity of a
marriage.
For example, suppose
that a person domiciled in Scotland
and a person
habitually resident in France
, both being
of the Islamic faith, go through an Islamic
marriage ceremony in Pakistan
where their
respective families originated. This ceremony is not
registered with the Pakistani authorities but they initially
establish a matrimonial home in Karachi
.
After a year, they return to Europe. For
immigration and other purposes, whether they are
now husband and wife would be referred to the law of Pakistan
because that is the most immediately relevant law by which to
decide precisely the nature of the ceremony they went through and
the effect of failing to register it. If the ceremony was in fact
sufficient to create a valid marriage under Pakistani law and there
are no
public policy issues
raised under their personal laws of
lex domicilii or habitual residence, and
under the
lex fori, they will be treated a validly married
for all purposes, i.e. it will be an
in
rem outcome.
See also
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