H.A.H v S.A.A and Others

The applicant was given refugee status and had successfully applied for permission for his second wife to join him in Ireland. The present case arose when he sought to have his first wife join him. In considering the legal consequences of a polygamous marriage entered into in another country, the Supreme Court ruled that, where a man had married two wives under the laws of Lebanon, the first marriage is valid under Irish law but the second is not. The appellant (husband) had married two women in a manner permissible under the laws of Lebanon (their previous state of domicile). He sought a declaration, pursuant to Section 29 of the Family Law Act 1995, that his marriage to his first wife was valid on the date of its inception. The High Court found the polygamous marriage entirely invalid. On appeal, the Supreme Court reasoned that: (a) rules of private international law require the State to recognize a marriage validly contracted under a foreign system of law unless such recognition is prohibited by public policy; (b) the Constitution and Irish public policy envisage a marriage as a union between two people based on the principles of equality and mutual commitment; (c) there is therefore no bar to recognizing a marriage “that is in fact monogamous, where the only objection is that the system of law under which the couple married would permit more than one marriage;” and (d) Irish law and the Irish Constitution preclude the recognition of a second or subsequent marriage while the first marriage is valid, although that does not mean that a subsequent marriage can never have legal consequences. The Court granted the declaration of the validity of the first marriage because it was valid when contracted and the husband’s subsequent marriage should not preclude that.