PIL.OT / DEVELOPMENT
PIL.OTv0.62.2
Clive Noombo questions the continued use of Lord Penzance’s formula in Hyde v. Hyde and Woodmansee to explain civil marriage under Zambia’s Marriage Act. The article argues that Hyde was not a definition of marriage, but a jurisdictional ruling withholding English matrimonial relief from a potentially polygamous union.
It considers permanence and the exclusivity of “one man and one woman” separately under Zambian law, comparing both elements with developments in South Africa and the United Kingdom. It concludes that civil marriage needs not a new foundation, but an honest renaming of the foundation it already has.
The role of the Hyde v. Hyde marriage formula as the legal foundation of civil marriage in Zambia and its jurisdictional treatment of potentially polygamous unions
The article’s concrete contribution is to separate the Hyde formula from any universal definition of marriage and treat it instead as a historical response to a particular jurisdictional and remedial problem. That distinction allows permanence to be assessed separately from the continuing statutory and penal-law position on the “one man and one woman” requirement in Zambia.
Journal of arts, humanities and social science · 2026
DOI 10.69739/jahss.v3i3.2233