2.5 Void Marriage

A void marriage is void ab initio — no legal existence from the start: Grounds: bigamous marriage (a spouse living); marriage within prohibited degrees (incest); child marriage below 20 (the modern child-protection reading voids it — while the classic Ain design treated it as voidable-and-punishable; state the Code's design honestly by remedy: the child-married party may petition for annulment and the arrangers are criminally punishable); Consequences: no spousal status, no mutual inheritance, no consortium rights; but the children's legitimacy and maintenance rights are protected (the innocent party and children do not suffer for the parents' invalidity); the criminal liabilities (below) survive independently; Procedure: no decree needed to make it void (it never was a marriage), though a declaration is available — and needed in practice to unblock remarriage, property and registration records.