Now another query for you which I have already sent to Mary Dundas because
she was the first to send me a reply! The early bird certainly got a worm
this time.

What is "marriage", "male " and Female " in the USA? The initial student
query  developed into another about what exactly was a marriage anyway and
who could be married and at what age etc.
"Marriage, according to law in Australia, is the union of a man
and a woman to the exclusion of all others, voluntarily entered
into for life."; or words to that effect." (Section 46 of the Marriage Act
1961) This definition is taken from a common law decision in the UK in the
nineteenth century. We don't have state differences in this field as
marriage is a matter for Federal not state regulation. (We have different
laws for de facto relationships including, in some states, same sex
relationships.)


 There is at least one celebrated English case ( I think in the
1960s) rejecting the possibility of a marriage where a man had
 become a woman through a sex change because the essential
nature of man and woman was defined by the chromosomes
which of course could not be changed. Now I understand that not all men
have the same chromosome structure of XX (female)  or XY (male) and that
there are documented cases of XXY so I've got no idea of anything anymore
and no idea at all of how we got to this from a course in basic commercial
law principles!

Has anyone got any clues on this one? It's late on a beautiful Spring
Friday afternoon in Australia, assignments are not due in till next week
and  as it's rare to get a really interesting question form business law
students I thought I'd share this one.
Anne Maureen



Anne Maureen Scarff
School of Economics and Finance
University of Western Sydney Nepean
Post Office Box 10, Kingswood 2747
Australia
Phone 61 2 9852 5630
Fax 61 2 9852 5644
"Caution: Cape does not enable user to fly."
-Batman Costume warning label