Marriage (Scotland) Act 1939
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | 1939 c. 34 |
| Year | 1939 |
Marriage (Scotland) Act, 1939
(2 & 3 Geo. 6.) CHAPTER 34.
An Act to amend the law relating to the constitution of marriage in Scotland.
[13th July 1939]
Be it enacted by the King's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—
1 Marriage before registrar.
(1) Any two persons who desire to be married to each other in Scotland, may contract a marriage in the office of an authorised registrar in accordance with the following provisions:—
(i) on production to an authorised registrar of valid certificates of due publication under the Marriage Notice (Scotland) Act, 1878 , of notice of the intended marriage, or of a valid certificate of such publication, applicable to both parties, the registrar shall supply a copy of the First Schedule to this Act, and shall, so far as possible, fill up the same according to the information supplied by the parties to the best of their knowledge and belief;
(ii) the parties shall thereafter, in the presence of the registrar and of two persons of the age of sixteen years or upwards as witnesses, declare that they know of no legal impediment to their marriage, and that they accept each other as husband and wife;
(iii) the registrar shall then complete the filling up of the copy of the aforesaid Schedule and it shall be signed by the parties, the registrar and the witnesses.
(2) The registrar shall cause the particulars of every marriage contracted under this section in his presence as such particulars are set forth in the copy of the aforesaid Schedule to be entered as soon as possible in the register, and the copy of the Schedule shall be transmitted to the Registrar-General for preservation.
(3) The registrar shall be entitled in respect of a marriage contracted under this section in his presence to a fee of five shillings.
(4) Any marriage contracted in accordance with the foregoing provisions of this section shall, unless there be a legal impediment thereto, be a valid and regular marriage in all respects.
(5) Section six of the Registration of Births, Deaths and Marriages (Scotland) Act, 1854 (which confers power to make regulations), shall extend to the making of regulations regarding the discharge of the duties imposed on registrars by this section, including, without prejudice to the foregoing generality, the hours during which registrars shall be required to give attendance for the purposes of this section.
(6) In this section the expression ‘authorised registrar’ means a registrar authorised for the purposes of this section by the Registrar-General, and it shall be the duty of the Registrar-General, in pursuance of the power hereby conferred, to authorise at least one registrar in each large burgh and one registrar in each small burgh or in the parish comprising such burgh, and to authorise in the landward areas of counties such number of registrars as the Registrar-General may, after consultation with the county councils, think necessary in order to afford reasonable facilities in every part of Scotland for marriages in accordance with this section. Where any registrar is authorised in pursuance of this subsection, the assistant to that registrar shall, unless the Registrar-General otherwise directs, be deemed to be an authorised registrar.
(7) The power conferred by the last foregoing subsection may be exercised from time to time as the Registrar-General shall think fit, and shall include power to revoke an authorisation thereunder.
2 Marriage by licence.
(1) Where on a joint application to the sheriff by the parties to any marriage intended to be contracted within his jurisdiction it appears to the sheriff—
(a ) that one of the parties has his usual residence in Scotland or has lived in Scotland for fifteen days immediately preceding the presentation of the application;
(b ) that there is no legal impediment to the marriage;
(c ) that proclamation of banns of the marriage or publication of notice thereof under the Marriage Notice (Scotland) Act, 1878, could not be obtained till after the day on which it is intended that the marriage shall take place; and
(d ) that, in respect of the illness of one of the parties or other unforeseen and exceptional circumstance, there is reasonable excuse for the failure of the parties to take the necessary steps to secure such proclamation or publication and to obtain a certificate thereof before the said day;
the sheriff may grant a licence for such marriage, and such licence shall, for all purposes, be of the like force and effect as a certificate of notice of marriage...
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