Marriage and Illegal Marriage – Legal Age of Marriage

Marriage and illegal marriage

What is marriage?

Getting married means a man and a woman’s establishment of the husband-and-wife relationship according to the provisions of the law on marriage conditions and mariage registration.

What is an illegal marriage?

Illegal marriage means a man and woman who have registered their marriage with the competent state authority but have violated the marriage conditions prescribed by law.

To determine whether a marriage is valid, the following three conditions must be met:

• The marriage shall be registered with the competent State authority;
• The marriage shall be registered in accordance with the procedure prescribed by the law;
• The marriage is not in violation of one of the statutory marriage conditions.

Marriage is a citizenship right. No one has the right to force persons to get married. Whether they get married or not and who and when they get married to is decided by the parties who are getting married. However, once they make the decision to get married, they must fully satisfy the marriage conditions prescribed by law and must register their marriage with the competent State agency.

The State shall not recognize marriage between persons of the same sex.

Legal age of marriage and the consistency of Vietnamese legal system

Legal age of marriage

According to the 2014 Law on Marriage and Family, a man who is fully 20 years old or older and a woman who is fully 18 years or older are allowed to get married.

According to Clause 1, Article 2 of Joint Circular 01/2016/TTLT-TANDTC-VKSNDTC-BTP: “Men aged fully 20 years or older and women aged fully 18 years or older as defined in Point a, Clause 1, Article 8 of the Law on Marriage and Family is when a man is fully twenty years old or older and a woman is fully eighteen years old or older and is determined by the day, month and year of birth.”

This regulation is a new provision of the 2014 Law on Marriage and Family and is consistent with the 2015 Civil Code. In the 2000 Law on Marriage and Family, the age conditions for marriage were “from 18 years old” and “from 20 years old”, that is, right after the 17th birthday, they were old enough to get married.

The consistency of Vietnamese legal system

Under civil law, except for special cases, individuals who are fully eighteen years of age or older have full civil capacity to act, that is, they have the capability to establish and exercise civil rights and perform civil obligations through their actions. Therefore, the 2014 Law on Marriage and Family raises the age for women to get married to “fully 18 years old” to be consistent with the Vietnamese legal system, and standardizes the process of applying and handling the law.