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Common-law marriage. sometimes called de facto marriage. informal marriage or marriage by habit and repute. is a form of interpersonal status which is legally recognized in some jurisdictions as a marriage even though no legally recognized marriage ceremony is performed or civil marriage contract is entered into or the marriage registered in a civil registry. A common-law marriage is legally binding in some common law jurisdictions but has no legal consequence in others. In some jurisdictions without true common-law marriages, for example, Hungary. the term "common-law marriage" is used as a synonym for non-marital relationships such as domestic partnership or reciprocal beneficiaries relationship. [ 1 ]

The essential distinctions of a common-law marriage are:

1. Common-law marriages are not licensed by government authorities, although they may be recorded in the public records of some governmental entities.
2. Common-law marriages are not solemnized.
3. Cohabitation alone does not create a common-law marriage; the couple must hold themselves out to the world as spouses; and
   1. There must be mutual consent of the parties to the relationship constituting a marriage
   2. Both parties must be of legal age to enter into a marriage or have parental consent to marry
   3. Both parties must be otherwise qualified to enter into a marriage, including being unmarried, of sound mind, and, in many states, not sentenced to or serving a term of life in prison
4. In some jurisdictions, a couple must have cohabited and held themselves out to the world as husband and wife for a significant period of time, not defined in any state, for the marriage to be recognised as valid. [ 1 ]

There is no such thing as "common-law divorce". Once a marriage is validly contracted, whether according to statute or according to common-law, the marriage can be dissolved only by a legal proceeding in the pertinent trial court, usually family court or probate court. [ 1 ]

In the US state of Texas. a new provision was added to the Family Code; either partner in a common-law marriage has two years after separation to file an action in order to prove that the common-law marriage existed. To use the provision, the separation must have occurred after September 1, 1989. [ 2 ]

Since the mid-1990s, the term "common-law marriage" has been used in parts of Europe and Canada to describe various types of domestic partnership between persons of the same sex as well as persons of the opposite sex. Although these interpersonal statuses are often, as in Hungary, called "common-law marriage" they differ from true common-law marriage in that they are not legally recognized as "marriages" but are a parallel interpersonal status, known in most jurisdictions as "domestic partnership", "registered partnership", or "civil union".

Not all agreements break statutes. Some are illegal because they break public policy, which is generally "to discourage any interference with the freedom of choice". An agreement forbidding a party to marry or bribing a party to refrain from marriage is considered "Interference with Marriage Relation" or an "Agreement in Restraint of Marriage"; such agreements are typically held to be nonbinding. [ 3 ] [ 4 ]

In medieval Europe, marriage came under the jurisdiction of canon law, which recognised as a valid marriage one where the parties stated that they took one another as wife and husband, even in absence of any witnesses.

The Roman Catholic Church abolished clandestine marriage at the Council of Trent (1545–1563), ruling that in the future a marriage would be valid only if it was witnessed by a Catholic priest or, if obtaining one was impractical, by other witnesses. This was not meaningful for Protestants or for the Eastern Orthodox. England abolished clandestine or common-law marriages in the Marriage Act 1753. requiring marriages to be performed by a priest of the Church of England unless the participants in the marriage were Jews or Quakers. The Act applied to Wales. and to Ireland after the Act of Union 1800. although the requirement for a Church of England priest created problems in predominantly Roman Catholic Ireland. The law did not provide an exception there. The Act did not apply to Scotland because by the Acts of Union 1707 Scotland retained its own legal system. To get around the requirements of the Marriage Act, such as minimum age requirements, couples would go to Gretna Green. in southern Scotland, to get married under Scots law.

The Marriage Act of 1753 also did not apply to Britain's overseas colonies of the time, so common-law marriages continued to be recognised in the future United States and Canada. In the United States, new common-law marriages arising in the state are still recognised in Alabama. Colorado. Iowa. Kansas. Montana. Rhode Island. South Carolina. Texas. Utah. the District of Columbia. [ 5 ] under military law. [ 6 ] and in Canada, several provinces recognize them. Almost all U.S. states recognize common-law marriages validly entered into at a time and place where common-law marriage was recognized, although some impose certain public-policy exceptions to the recognition of common-law marriages involving minors or persons who would not be entitled to marry in that state for some reason. A common law marriage occurring under military law is not binding on the non-military spouse (if a mixed marriage) and therefore unlikely to be recognized by some jurisdictions.

All countries in Europe have now abolished "marriage by habit and repute", [citation needed ] with Scotland being the last to do so in 2006. [ 7 ]