post Buffy s3

Tying the knot is really extremely easy, a quick hop on the train up to Gretna Green (or Las Vegas for you Americans) a few hours, a couple of witnesses and its done. You don't have to be citizens of the country, many people prefer to get married on a hot Caribbean beach somewhere (though Angel and Buffy might prefer some sort of pavilion for obvious reasons). There are various requirements, mainly to do with consent, age, gender and previous marriages, none of which would stop the happy couple.

The main legal obstacle to Buffy and Angel walking down the aisle is a very fundamental one. The vast majority of marriage laws require there to be a man and a woman. Some of the less backward ones allow a man and man or a woman and a woman, but still the emphasis is rather on the 'man' part of man or woman i.e. that the people in question must be human. I'm sure there is a case somewhere in the distant reaches of legal history that says that humans cannot marry animals (no matter how soft and woolly they are), and if you find it, tell me.

 

So is Angel a man?

I realise here that I'm going to deluged by mail from deranged females along the lines of: "He's man enough for me!", "He's more man than you'll ever be!", "Angel? *gasp* man, oh, man, oh man!!" but if we could move past that… thank you.

The scientist within me cries that DNA testing would seem to be the most certain way of determining a vampire’s humanity. While the demon soul could conceivably alter the neural functions of the brain and it must have significantly altered the internal physiology so as to manifest the 'game' face and stop the heart-beat it is mammoth task to rewrite the DNA coding in every single cell. As Spike is fond of reminding us, such things are in the blood, not the genes.

 

The comparison of vampires and animals

Even if it could be shown that vampires weren't genetically human, it does not necessarily follow that they cannot get married. Vampires are set apart from animals in many respects. If the reasons for forbidding human/animal marriages did not apply to vampires and no other objection were raised then there is no logical reason why vampires should not be allowed to marry.

I would imagine that the reasons humans cannot marry animals goes to consent and to personality, the animals cannot be knowledgeable enough to provide proper consent, even if they were intelligent enough be able to communicate it. Such a hindrance does not apply to vampires. Another basic fact gets in the way: animals are non-persons, they have not been recognised as individuals by the law since the middle ages (where individual animals could be called to answer criminal charges). Vampires are possibly legally non-persons as well, depending as to the argument in Are Vampires Dead? as to whether they retain the legal personality of the 'host' (and see below as to whether in practice they have legal personality). Certainly Buffy & co. do not treat them in general with the respect due to legal persons.

 

Policy

The marriage of a human and a non-human would require a fairly large extension to the current law. The validity of any such extension is likely to be determined after consideration of policy. Such policy can be construed from the reasoning behind existing and past matrimonial law.

There are religious and legal exceptions, it is, after all illegal to bed an animal, and the consummation of a marriage is seen as rather part of the tradition, and in some areas, is required. While there isn't a law against bedding a vampire (for the obvious reason that they aren’t acknowledged to exist) we can see a rather striking religious reason why a union between a mortal and a demonic son of the night might be frowned upon. Then again we have to question why, in this day of civil marriages and widespread agnosticism we should place legal constraints based solely on religious doctrine. Though Angel, as a Catholic, might feel he ought to grimace and bear the inherent difficulties of a church service.

(Angel is still Catholic, by the way, (hence the large suitcases of guilt he carries around, because he hasn't had a chance to confess his sins since he ate that priest in Becoming) they never let you go, not even in death, and he hasn't been excommunicated yet...)

So where does that leave us?

We still must consider some general policy reasons (leaving aside solely religious compunctions) which have forbid 'unusual' marriages in the past and the present.

Cross-race marriages

Cross-race marriages, in America, South Africa and Germany at different times in their history were introduced primarily for a single purpose, to avoid the pollution of a specific racial stock with the propagation of half-breeds. As it has been stated in BtVS vampires (or at least Angel) cannot propagate normally, certainly not to produce half-breeds. Their method of reproduction appears to be solely parasitic.

Same-gender marriages

Far more comparable to the vampire/mortal union is the same-gender marriage, since at the present state of medical technology, neither can bear offspring and so the policy concern of propagation is redundant. Vampire/mortal unions might find themselves the victim of the same agenda as same sex marriages, i.e. that they are not allowed simply because the government does not wish to encourage (and indeed may wish to actively discourage) homosexuality. I can't see today's society smiling on the slayer/undead match, even though they do look so gosh darn cute together.

The favourite official reasoning behind disallowing same-sex marriages is given in the following case taken from Legally Wed by Mark Strasser.

In Jones v Hallahan, the Kentucy Supreme Court suggested that the state of Kentucky was not invidiously discriminating against two women by refusing to allow them to marry: the two women were "prevented from marrying, not by the statutes of Kentucky or the refusal of the Country Clerk of Jefferson County to issue them a license, but rather by their own incapability of entering into a marriage as that term is defined."

When a court suggest that the definition of the term rather than the marital statute prevents two individuals from marrying, the court implies that the legislature is not responsible for that definition. Otherwise, the legislature could simply change the definition and permit the individuals to wed.

Marriage in its modern form is a legal institution before it is a religious one. The idea that the legislature cannot change the definition of a legal institution is laughable. Are they trying to claim that they cannot change the definition of marriage, while they can still impose legal limits on the very non-legal concept of death? It’s ridiculous.

 

Given that the legally logical arguments stopping them getting together are dubious at best, I ask you the questions:

Should Buffy and Angel be allowed to get married?

Should vampires be allowed to marry vampires or mortals generally?

What policy considerations are there?

The answer to these would determine whether or not Buffy and Angel, or indeed any vampires, could marry because it would be such policy reasons that would stop such a union rather than anything else.

 

Let's get down to some practicalities

I'm guessing anyone interested enough in this topic to make it all the way down here probably wants to see Angel and Buffy finally tie the knot, so let's leave the theory aside and work out exactly how it could be managed.

The one thing that Angel practically needs to prove is that he has legal personality. This is something that officially comes into being with a birth certificate and the vast majority of people use a copy of their birth certificate in the preliminaries to their marriage. Angel wouldn't have a birth certificate as he was born before they were introduced. His legal personality would therefore have its official base in the parish records of his place of birth. This legal personality is officially terminated upon the issue of a death certificate. Has Angel been issued a death certificate? Who knows. Perhaps one day Joss might let us know, it would be easy enough to slip into an episode. He could have it framed in his office in LA, it would make a wonderful talking piece.

We've seen vamps (Ford, Theresa, Andrew) who've emerged from their respective grave or coffins. They must have been issued with death certificates. Others, such as the Watcher 's ill-fated henchman in Helpless, could not have been issued with a death certificate.

No death certificate, Angel's still has legal personality and could get married perfectly legally.

Realistically however if there weren't a death certificate (or note in the parish records) his date of birth would raise a few eyebrows. His choice is between getting married in a state that doesn't require a birth certificate (and you Americans out there can help me with this one) or acquire a different birth certificate. This could either be forged or simply a copy of someone else's who was born at about the same time as a mortal Angel would have been and who died with no other identification (such as a passport or a driver's licence). He would have to assume their name (like he was christened Angel?).

It really would be extremely simple.

They all lived happy ever after… until Buffy spontaneously combusted as they left the church.

 


Opinions

Vanhal
... I suspect that any judge or clerk would perceive Angel as being human and the matter would never come up. Yes, Angel would need legal documentation, but he probably has it already. Consider the very similar problems of Highlander. The Immortals must constantly create and update new identities, "killing" old ones and creating new ones. It is by that trail of false identities that Connor McLeod is discovered in the original movie. If Angel is operating in the human world, he most likely has a legal, if fictitious, identity already. In fact, one might wonder if there isn't an office at Wolfram & Hart that supplies such services! ... I don't see any real reason why anyone should forbid it, particularly given the reproduction issue. A marriage would only legalize an existing relationship.

ajn 15/1/00
In England and Wales there is a more prosaic and practical difficulty, one may only marry between the hours of 8am and 6pm - therefore in daylight hours for the greater part of the year. A serious obstacle for any vampire, however romantically inclined to overcome.

michelle1brat 15/1/00
...since Angel has a problem with the sun, they could get married in Vegas at a all night wedding chapel. I don't know long it would take to drive to Las Vegas from Sunnydale or LA, but if they get caught in the daytime, Buffy can drive and Angel can stay in the trunk...

Diandra 20/1/00
Actually, Buffy is the one who'd probably undergo the most scrutiny, since bloodtests in most of the states involve either getting, or showing you've gotten, shots for german measles, so you don't pass it on to an unborn child. Surprisingly enough though, many states will waive blood tests if the potential marry-ee says it's against his or her religion because we don't want to impinge on religious freedom.

And if Candy and Lyle Gorch can get married, I don't see why Buffy and Angel can't. And if Angelus can be in church long enough to eat a priest and hear Dru's confession, I suspect he could last through say, a quick Catholic ceremony. So long as the priest doesn't get excessive in flicking holy water at him.

And some vamps probably would want to be married since they retain their personalities. I know women who would've rolled in broken glass and bathed in lemon juice to have a big wedding--sad but true--and I don't imagine a little thing like death would stop them.

Although it would be a little embarrassing to have the groom's side of the facility entirely empty...because he ate them.

Jacqui 21/3/00
I think you are too quick to dismiss religion as the progenitor of current marriage laws. Although they are secular now, they have their basis in religious doctrine - I think that, despite modern ideas of informed consent, the basis of the legal framework behind the unacceptability of same-sex marriage (or indeed marriage with animals or minors, which I am not advocating I hasten to add) is not consent, but the ability to procreate. Consent was not a big issue until fairly recently - I don't have references to hand, but marriage between minors or without the consent of the female party was not an issue in the medieval period. I think it was not until the counter-reformation that the Catholic Church began to require consent as a pre-requisite to valid marriage.

In Christian doctrine, marriage is intended as a forum for procreation - this was reiterated recently by a UK vicar. I think that if same-sex marriage, or vampire-human marriage, were to become an issue in the UK, this would be the major legal stumbling block, similar to the current state of UK rape laws.

Other than that, I am all in favour of vampire/mortal marriage. "Spike, its a leap year, will you..."


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