ABSTRACT
There are a number of situations where a valid common law marriage is found not because the territory is deemed subject to the common law but because the demands of the lex loci were impossible for the parties to fulfil. Lord Eldon held that a common law marriage had been established where two Protestants had been married in Rome before a Protestant clergyman when the court received evidence that no Roman Catholic priest would perform the ceremony.90 In like terms, Lord Stowell held that a marriage celebrated in the Cape of Good Hope was valid where one party was unable to obtain the consent of a guardian resident in England.91 There must be some evidence of insuperable difficulty not mere inconvenience, so that failure to meet a residence requirement of the lex loci will not normally be sufficient.92
