VALIDITY OF INTER-STATE MARRIAGES AND ITS CORRELATION WITH THE DOCTRINE OF RENVOI IN THE INTERNATIONAL LAW: AN ASSESSMENT

ABSTRACT

Renvoi has been described as a “dirty word” in Anglo-American jurisprudence. A detrimental fixation by conflicts scholars on the rare apparition of the “endless chain” has engendered a climate of hostility to the doctrine, with commentators describing Renvoi as “insidious,” and “intrinsically illogical.” Such antagonism has spawned a multitude of metaphors and has resulted in the often-unthinking rejection of Renvoi by many scholars and judges in the context of inter-state marriages and matrimonial issues. It is imperative to comprehend the transnational movement of people with an atrocious surge in the foreign marriages and divorces reflecting a significant rise in the inter-state marriage disputes wherein tis not unusual to perceive cases where the husband and wife reside in different countries, possess domicile in a third country and their children reside in a fourth country. This has become cumbersome to deal with this faction as the internal laws of different nations contrast widely from each other while implying the application of the foreign domestic law from an international standpoint. Hence, there is a need for proper codification and unification of the rules of conflict of laws relating to the rule of law and gender justice on the one hand and the need to protect the basic human rights of parties to a marriage on the other which in most of the scenario demand internationally accepted standards and norms to deal with inter-personal and inter-state marriage disputes. This paper aims to provide some clarity on the usefulness and the practical application of Renvoi.