---
title: "Marriage (Enabling) Act 1960"
id: 0c034e57-b97d-43d6-9a48-268128385d44
authority: uk
place: "United Kingdom"
applies_also_from: []
kind: statute
in_force: true
publisher_url: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Eliz2/8-9/29
attribution: "Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives."
solon_url: https://solon.orangecat.ch/law/0c034e57-b97d-43d6-9a48-268128385d44
language: en
in_force_from: 1991-02-01
date_basis: publisher
status: consolidated
source_url: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Eliz2/8-9/29/data.xml
read_on: 2026-11-08
sha256: 291f8a52c84d36d74fce537ad2050962d094d969a516904462e86efd406dd613
provisions: 4
---

# Marriage (Enabling) Act 1960

## Title and introductory text {#prelims}

Marriage (Enabling) Act 1960
1960 c.29
An Act to enable a person to marry certain kin of a former spouse.
[13th April 1960]

## 1 Certain marriages not to be void. {#section-1}

(1) No marriage hereafter contracted (whether in or out of Great Britain) between a man and a woman who is the sister, aunt or niece of a former wife of his (whether living or not), or was formerly the wife of his brother, uncle or nephew (whether living or not), shall by reason of that relationship be void or voidable under any enactment or rule of law applying in Great Britain as a marriage between persons within the prohibited degrees of affinity.
(2) In the foregoing subsection words of kinship apply equally to kin of the whole and of the half blood.
(3) This section does not validate a marriage, if either party to it is at the time of the marriage domiciled in a country outside Great Britain, and under the law of that country there cannot be a valid marriage between the parties.
(4) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

## 2 Short title, citation and extent. {#section-2}

(1) This Act may be cited as the Marriage (Enabling) Act, 1960, and this Act and the Marriage Acts, 1949 to 1958, may be cited together as the Marriage Acts, 1949 to 1960.
(2) This Act shall not apply to Northern Ireland.

## SCHEDULE {#schedule}

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