ABSTRACT
Olivia Harris has pointed out that ‘anthropology characteristically chooses as its fi eld of study those who are at the frontiers of legality, and those for whom the relationship with the law is at best ambivalent’ (1996: 3). In this chapter I examine the law entirely from the perspective of the purveyors of various services within the court, and from the viewpoint of those who must avail of these services in order to marry: namely, the love-marriage couples. The touts and lawyers whose services I detail provide some indication of how complicated and fraught the process of marriage really is. Unsurprisingly, ‘law as process’ looks very different from ‘law as statute’.
