2.2 Provisions Relating to Marriage (the Code 2074's Framework)

The Code's chapter on marriage is built on five pillars: Monogamy: neither party may have a spouse living (the bigamy bar — void and criminal); Minimum age: twenty years for both parties — below 20 is child marriage (void-and- punishable; the Criminal Code 2074's offence); Prohibited degrees: no marriage within the prohibited relationship — by blood (sapinda-style lines: ascendant-descendant, siblings, uncle-niece, aunt-nephew, cousins within the prohibited count) and by affinity (a spouse's blood relations within the degrees); the customary-practice exception where the Code recognizes community custom; Free consent: no coercion, undue influence, fraud or misrepresentation as to identity or decisive facts; Separation prohibited while married: parties to a subsisting marriage cannot marry others; the exit routes are only the Code's — divorce (Unit 4) or the spouse's death. Forms: the Code recognizes the marriage performed by ceremony (religious or social) followed by registration, and direct registration without ceremony (the "court marriage" of Unit 3).