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25 Fundamina 1 (2019)

handle is hein.journals/fundmna25 and id is 1 raw text is: ARTICLES I ALSO AM A BAROLONG: RE BETHELL AND SHAPING OF MARRIAGE LAW AND CONFLICT OF LAWS DOCTRINE Amanda Barratt* ABSTRACT Re Bethell was a judgement of the Chancery Division in London, decided in February 1888. The case considered the validity of the marriage between an English aristocrat and a Rolong woman concluded in terms of Rolong customary law. The judgement was enormously influential as the catalyst case that secured the legal definition of marriage as the voluntary union for life of one man and one woman, to the exclusion of all others. The article looks in detail at the historical context of the Bethell case and argues that the ruling was influenced by a desire to protect * Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Cape Town. Fundamina DOI: 10.17159/2411-7870/2019/v25n1al Volume 25 I Number 1 I 2019 Print ISSN 1021-545X/ Online ISSN 2411-7870 pp 1-25