In a move that has enraged the UK immigration authorities, British courts have awarded a US woman the right to remain in the UK with her British boyfriend, the child they share, her boyfriend’s wife, and their child. The adults in question, who subscribe to Odinism and worship Thor (among other deities), argued that the deportation of the American woman in question would disrupt their family and curtail their religious rights, as stated in Article 8 under the European Convention of Human rights.
The American national argued that the family’s pagan beliefs forbade divorce between her boyfriend and his wife, necessitating that she live with him to preserve familial stability not only for her own son, but the child born to her boyfriend’s wife as well. The case was ultimately dropped when UK public servants failed to prove that the relationship in question actually constituted the illegal act of polygamy, rather than a perfectly legal polymorous relationship.
Could such a legal development ever occur within the US? The US immigration lawyers we spoke with felt that such ruling would be highly unlikely to override US immigration policy, not only because of the USA’s stringent migration laws, but also because polygamy in the US is treated particularly harshly by American law enforcement officials.
Thailand lawyers also felt that such a legal outcome would be unlikely in Thai courts as well. Taking another woman as a wife (in general, according a second woman the financial and emotional support entitled to a wife) is grounds for divorce in Thailand; as such, one could argue that the polymorous relationship between the three adults mentioned above, where resources and financial support we diverted to the American national and her son, would be found illegal under Thai law. Only in Thailand’s southern-most provinces, which are governed by Sharia law, may a Muslim man take multiple wives.
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