Friday, August 06, 2004
Bigamy is legal in New Zealand
Did you know that bigamy is effectively legal in New Zealand? I certainly didn't, until I started doing some research for a submission on the Civil Union Bills. It comes about through an amendment to the Administration Act made in 2001. This Act governs what happens if a person dies without making a will (intestate).
According to Section 77(C), if a married person goes into a de facto relationship (or a series of de facto relationships) without dissolving the marriage -- and dies without making a will -- all the de facto partners have a claim on the dead person's estate equal to the surviving married partner.
So, the de facto partners are equal in law with the married partner. You're talking here about another relationship being legally equal to marriage, so you're making bigamy legal.
The whole mess will be further entrenched in the companion Bill to the Civil Union Bill, which goes by the innocuous-sounding title Relationships (Statutory References) Bill.
Our politicians seemed determine to hand lawyers a machine to make money. I wonder if it's because so many of them are lawyers themselves?
Did you know that bigamy is effectively legal in New Zealand? I certainly didn't, until I started doing some research for a submission on the Civil Union Bills. It comes about through an amendment to the Administration Act made in 2001. This Act governs what happens if a person dies without making a will (intestate).
According to Section 77(C), if a married person goes into a de facto relationship (or a series of de facto relationships) without dissolving the marriage -- and dies without making a will -- all the de facto partners have a claim on the dead person's estate equal to the surviving married partner.
So, the de facto partners are equal in law with the married partner. You're talking here about another relationship being legally equal to marriage, so you're making bigamy legal.
The whole mess will be further entrenched in the companion Bill to the Civil Union Bill, which goes by the innocuous-sounding title Relationships (Statutory References) Bill.
Our politicians seemed determine to hand lawyers a machine to make money. I wonder if it's because so many of them are lawyers themselves?
