annulment - Grounds for annulment, Islam

A judicial declaration of nullity of marriage. A null marriage is one that was never valid (ie it is void), for example because it involved parties within the prohibited degrees of affinity or consanguinity, or because it became invalid (voidable) due to the behaviour of one of the parties (eg an inability or refusal to consummate the marriage). The term also refers to an incorrectly made bankruptcy order, or a national law set aside by the Court of Justice of the European Communities.

Family law
Entering into marriage
Prenuptial agreement  · Marriage
Common-law marriage
Same-sex marriage
Legal states similar to marriage
Civil union  · Domestic partnership
Registered partnership
Dissolution of marriage
Annulment  · Divorce  · Alimony
Issues affecting children
Paternity  · Legitimacy
Adoption  · Legal guardian
Emancipation of minors
Parental responsibility
Contact (including Visitation)
Custody  · Child support
Areas of possible legal concern
Spousal abuse  · Child abuse
Child abduction
Adultery  · Bigamy  · Incest
Conflict of Laws Issues
Marriage  · Nullity  · Divorce

Annulment is a legal procedure for declaring a marriage null and void.

Grounds for annulment

Grounds for a marriage being voidable or void ab initio vary in different legal jurisdictions, but are typically limited to fraud, bigamy, and mental incompetence including that:

Either spouse was already married to someone else at the time of the marriage; The Church attempts to reconcile these two seeming opposing ideas by understanding that a "Declaration of Nullity" is not a dissolution of a marriage, but rather to determine whether a marriage was a sacrament (valid) or contrary in some way to Divine Law as understood by the Catholic Church. The Church's teaching on marriage is that it is a Sacrament and that it is only validly contracted by the two individuals, so questions may arise as to whether that person is able to contract a valid marriage.

For this reason (or for other reasons that render the marriage null and void) the Church, after an examination of the situation by the competent ecclesiastical tribunal, can declare the nullity of a marriage, i.e., that the marriage never existed.132 In this case the contracting parties are free to marry, provided the natural obligations of a previous union are discharged.

Marriages that are annulled under the Catholic Church are usually considered as ab initio, meaning that the marriage has been essentially invalid from the beginning. Critics point to this as additional evidence that a Catholic annulment is similar to divorce — although civil laws that recognized both annulments and divorce regard the offspring of a putative marriage as legitimate.

An annulment verified by the Catholic Church is independent from obtaining a civil divorce, although before beginning a process in front of the Ecclesiastical Tribunal, it has to be clear that the marriage community cannot be rebuilt.

If someone has all the signs of being married previously, he or she must get an annulment before entering into a marriage in the Catholic Church, even if the individual was not married in the Catholic Church previously. Catholics acknowledge the indissolubility of marriage for any baptized persons who give themselves freely in the bond of marriage and recognizes the marriages of other Christians in most cases.

Reasons for annulment

A reason for annulment is called an diriment impediment to the marriage. Prohibitory impediments make entering a marriage wrong but do not invalidate the marriage, such as being betrothed to another person at the time of the wedding; (In theory, the abduction of a man also constitutes an impediment, but no man has applied for annulment on these grounds.) Failure to adhere to requirements of canon law for marriages, such as clandestinity the couple killed the spouse of one of them in order to be free to marry the couple committed adultery, and one of the couple killed the spouse of one of them, in order to be free to marry

Some impediments can be dispensed, in which the Church exempts a couple, prior to the marriage, to the obligation to conform to the canon law. Again, if an invalid marriage has been contracted, and the diriment impediment can be removed, a convalidation or sanatio in radice can be performed to make the marriage valid. The perpetration of the fraud (prior to the marriage), and the discovery of the fraud (subsequent to the marriage) must be proven by corroboration of a witness or other external proof, even if the Defendant admits guilt (DRL §144).

A bigamous marriage (one party was still married at the time of the second marriage) cannot be annulled —it is void ab initio (not legal from its inception). These marriages were to Catherine of Aragon (on the grounds that she had already been married to his brother), Anne Boleyn (he claimed that she seduced him with witchcraft and that she was unfaithful, he later her had executed), Anne of Cleves (on the grounds of not consummating the marriage and she was engaged to someone else previously) and Catherine Howard (she was not a virgin and she flirted with members of his court).

Islam

Nikah Mut'ah, or fixed time marriages, is the second Qur'anic marriage form.