Humanist wedding couples denied status of being legally married

‘The present law gives rise to discrimination. The Justice Secretary cannot simply sit on his hands’

COUPLES wanting humanist marriage ceremonies have lost their legal battle despite a High Court judge ruling that they face discrimination.

Six couples had hoped that the Government would change the law to recognise humanist weddings as legal marriages and sought a landmark challenge over its refusal to recognise humanist marriages.

This is already the case for humanist weddings in Scotland and Ireland and for religious across the UK.

However, they lost their landmark challenge at the High Court yesterday, despite the judge recognising that humanist couples are “discriminated” against.

High Court judge Mrs Justice Eady DBE ruled that the failure to provide legally recognised humanist marriages meant that “the present law gives rise to … discrimination”. She also ruled that, in light of that, the Secretary of

State for Justice “cannot… simply sit on his hands” and do nothing.

However, she said, given that the Government is currently giving the matter consideration in the form of a review into marriage law by the Law Commission, the Government’s refusal to act immediately can be justified “at this time”.

She concluded: “Although I may deprecate the delay that has occurred since 2015, I cannot ignore the fact that there is currently an ongoing review of the law of marriage in this country.” As a result, she declined to make a formal declaration that the Government was acting unlawfully at this time.

The judge said that attention must now turn to the Government’s promised review of marriage law as the way that this discrimination must be addressed. The Government said in court that a consultation would be published in early September by the Law Commission.

Andrew Copson, chief executive of Humanists UK, said that despite the ruling, the organisation had hopes of progress.

He said: “We’ve waited 19 years for this reform since it was first considered by the Government in an ultimately abandoned review of marriage law, and seven years since Parliament gave the Government the power to bring about legal recognition of humanist marriages without requiring a new Act.

“Thanks to this judgment, it is at least now not a matter of if humanist marriages will be legally recognised but when, and we await the Government’s response to the judgment and their proposals to remedy the discrimination that has been identified by the court.

“We hope they will act quickly to give justice to the thousands of couples annually whose weddings are being denied legal recognition.”