Validity of a marriage
Marriage – Validity. A valid marriage performed in, and in accordance with the law of, Somaliland could still be recognised under English law, even though Somaliland might not be officially recognised by the UK Government as a sovereign state in its own right. The Family Division so ruled in granting a declaration, recognising the parties’ Somaliland marriage as being valid in the UK, notwithstanding that, at the time of the marriage, the UK had not recognised Somaliland as a state, but in circumstances where, on the evidence, the parties were validly married according to the law of Somaliland law, and where the Foreign and Commonwealth Office had indicated to the court that the Government would be unlikely to object to the recognition of a Somaliland marriage on the basis that it did not recognise Somaliland as a state.
Source: LexisNexis