Polygamy, Bigamy and Human Rights Law

About the Book

“Polygamy, Bigamy and Human Rights Law” considers the rights of growing ethnic, faith and religious minorities in a multi-cultural society as the law incorporates the European Convention of Human Rights. This is of international interest due to the important position of English Law in contributing to the development of the law in Britain´s former colonies. While the book focuses primarily on English Law, it is of particular relevance to the United States, where leading decisions have been based in part on references to English Law. The two systems use radically different methods of dealing with polygamy, despite ostensibly sharing the same basis, even before the effect of the Human Rights legislation is taken into account. The book therefore can act as a source for questioning the conclusions of some US Supreme Court cases, as it provides the details of English Law as an alternative case study of a common law system dealing with plural marriage. The book examines the development of English criminal and civil law in dealing with polygamy, tracing civil recognition of polygamy for a number of purposes, and comparing it with the criminal treatment of bigamy. The reasoning behind the law is identified and assumptions drawn from the reasons given. These assumptions are then tested against research and argument from a number of disciplines and against demographic information. This reveals the assumptions and reasoning to be largely open to question, and in need of debate. The study identifies the public policy reasons given by the courts, and the reasons identified by writers in the field. It also identifies relevant sections of the European Convention on Human Rights that will need to be applied by the English courts, the likely issues to be raised in the context of polygamy, and a number of arguments which would be available for polygamists to use. The study concludes that the law has not developed in a logically coherent way, but that the law has contributed towards stifling interest in debating the subject. The Human Rights Act therefore presents both a stimulus for comprehensive debate and a considerable challenge to the existing law and a range of possible effects are identified.

About the Author

Samuel Chapman was born in Belfast and studied in state schools and Oxford University, where he read law, philosophy and politics. Since then he has worked in law enforcement and crime reduction for the police, the Criminal Cases Review Commission and a number of local authorities. He was recently awarded a Master of Laws degree in Human Rights and Criminal Justice from Coventry University. The degree was awarded with Merit on the basis of his work on the law relating to plural marriage. He lives in North-West England with his wife, books and computers.