LJU4804 PORTFOLIO ASSIGNMENT.
LJU4804 - Private International Law
Material validity of a marriage is governed by the law of marriage celebration – the
lex loci celebrationis.1
In terms of the South African private international law, the laws
of where the marriage was celebrated govern the v...
QUESTION 1
2
STUDENT NAME : NEERSHA SINGH
STUDENT NUMBER : 43359744
, 1.1
Material validity of a marriage is governed by the law of marriage celebration – the
lex loci celebrationis.1 In terms of the South African private international law, the laws
of where the marriage was celebrated govern the validity of marriage.
The answer would differ if parties got married in Malawi to evade the mandatory
requirements of Botswana law in respect of parental permission for minors to enter
into marriage. If persons seek to evade certain provisions of the normally applicable
legal system and act in a manner intended to create (fraudulent) connecting factors
with another legal system, the normally applicable legal system will be applied.
An area of law in which there are several examples of the operation of the doctrine of
fraus legis is marriage law. In these instances, the parties get married elsewhere in
order to evade provisions of the lex fori.2 In the Zimbabwean case of Kassim v
Ghumran and Another (1981 Zimbabwe LR 227). In this matter, Kassim and
Ghumran went through a marriage ceremony in Malawi. They married there to evade
the provision of Zimbabwean law (Kassim was domiciled in Zimbabwe) requiring that
Kassim, who was only fifteen at the time of conclusion of the marriage, had to obtain
her parents’ consent to enter into marriage. Kassim’s father brought an application in
the Zimbabwe High Court for an order declaring the marriage void. The judge
decided the matter on the basis of fraus legis and found that “where one or both of
the parties were domiciled in the area of the court and had their marriage
deliberately solemnized elsewhere to escape an essential requirement of the lex
domicilii (being the lex fori), they acted in fraudem legis and their marriage was
tested by the local law as the lex domicilii”. Forsyth points out that, although the
doctrine of fraus legis forms part of our law, the extent of its operation is not entirely
clear.3 the question whether it should only be applied if the law evaded is the lex fori
or whether it should also be applied where the evaded legal system is a foreign legal
system. Forsyth argues that, where the doctrine operates to exclude the lex causae,
the evaded law should be applied.4
1.Wethmar-Lemmer MM Private International Law Department of Jurisprudence University of South Africa,
(Pretoria 2014-2015) 55.
2. Wethmar-Lemmer MM Private International Law Department of Jurisprudence University of South Africa,
(Pretoria 2014-2015) 35-36.
3. Forsyth Private International Law 126.
4. Forsyth Private International Law 126.
3
STUDENT NAME : NEERSHA SINGH
STUDENT NUMBER : 43359744
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