The institution of marriage in Ghana is often seen by many as a social and cultural contract between two people, preferably a man and a woman.

Most of the religious faiths in Ghana also subscribe to this description.

However, as far as Ghana’s constitution is concerned, marriage is different.

Speaking on GhanaWeb’s Legal Agenda, a legal practitioner, Sena Hotor, explained that under the constitution, marriage is whatever the law says it is and not necessarily a union between a man and a woman.

To him, the laws of the land give the necessary interpretation of what should be accepted as marriage.

“Marriage from a legal perspective is a creature of statute, and so marriage is what the law says it is. If tomorrow the law says that a man and a tree are a union, that will be a valid marriage,” he stated.

He explained that, unlike the religious and cultural definition of marriage as a union ordained by God, the law comes in to validate the union of those who happen to not believe in God.

“It is a very jurisprudential question and the issue and questions that will pop up are that marriage is a union ordained by God. What about those who don't believe in God? Will their union also constitute marriage?

For every state and every country, the laws in that country define what is acceptable as the union between one and the other so that the same laws within the country prescribe what is called the validity requirement for the substantive requirement and the procedural requirement you must meet in order for your marriage to be valid or legally recognised,” he added.

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Watch the full interview below

NW/OGB