Changes to the legal age of marriage in Jersey

As of March 24th 2023, Jersey law will require residents to wait until they are 18 years old before tying the knot.

Summary of the changes

Legal age for marriage raised from 16 to 18
Civil partnerships extended to all couples, regardless of sex
Parents may be refused from registering certain names for children
Married couples can convert a marriage into a civil partnership

Clare Woodhouse from the Benest & Syvret Family Law team summarises the changes below:

There are amendments to the law today which may affect many islanders.

Not long after the UK raised the legal age of marriage to 18 from 16, our island has followed suit, in line with the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of the Child.

This shows that Jersey remains committed to change.

In addition, Civil Partnerships are now available to all regardless of gender and married people can swap to a civil partnership if they wish to; people who are getting married outdoors can choose a second back-up location in case of inclement weather and the Superintendent Registrar today has more power now as she can refuse to register a child’s name if it could cause confusion, mistake or embarrassment.

At Benest & Syvret we welcome these changes and hope to see greater change in the law to support the needs of our diverse society.

For support with family law issues contact us here

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