Probate, Divorce and Admiralty Division of the High Court of Justice
Full case name
Arthur Cameron Corbett v. April Corbett (Otherwise Ashley)
Decided
2 February 1970 (1970-02-02)
Citation
[1971] P. 83, [1970] 2 All E.R. 33
Court membership
Judge sitting
Roger Ormrod
Case opinions
Decision by
Ormrod
Family law
Family
Marriage and other unions and status
Types of marriages
Cohabitation
Concubinage
Common-law marriage
Civil union
Domestic partnership
Validity of marriages
Marriage licence
Marriage certificate
Prenuptial agreement
Matrimonial regime
Void and Voidable marriages
Annulment
Marriageable age
Sham marriage
Amatonormativity
Dissolution of marriages
Divorce
Adultery
Grounds for divorce
No-fault divorce
Matrimonial Causes Act
Legal separation
Alimony
Parenting plan
Residence [UK (EW and NI)]
Parental rights
Custody evaluator (US)
Parenting coordinator (US)
Children's issues
Paternity
DNA paternity testing
Legitimacy
Child custody
Legal guardian
Adoption
Tender years doctrine
Filial responsibility
Contact & visitation
CAFCASS [UK (EW)]
Grandparent visitation
UN Rights of the Child
Children's rights
Emancipation
Foster care
Ward
Child support
Paper abortion
Paternal rights and abortion
List of child abuse cases featuring long-term detention
Private international law
Private international law
Divorce
Marriage
Hague Convention (adoption)
International child abduction
Hague Convention (child abduction)
Hague Convention (maintenance)
Family and criminal code (or criminal law)
Bigamy
Child abuse
CPS (US)
Child selling
Domestic violence
Incest
Legality of incest
Parental child abduction
Paternity fraud
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Corbett v Corbett (otherwise Ashley) is a 1970 family law divorce case heard between November and December 1969 by the High Court of England and Wales in which Arthur Corbett sought annulment of his marriage to April Ashley. Corbett (the husband) had known at the time of the wedding that Ashley (the wife) had been registered male at birth and had undertaken sex-reassignment surgery. However, after the relationship had broken down, Corbett sought to end the marriage, his legal ground for doing so being that the marriage had been invalid, as Ashley was of the male sex.
The court held that, for the purposes of marriage, sex was to be legally defined by three factors present at birth that the judge referred to as 'biological' – namely chromosomal, gonadal and genital. Any surgery or medical intervention was to be ignored, as were any psychological factors (which were in this case identified with Ashley's 'transsexualism').
Holding that Ashley had been born and continued to be a biological male – a fact that could not be changed by surgery – the judge held that the marriage (which had to be between man and woman) should be annulled.
Although the judgment was restricted to a consideration of legal sex specifically within marriage, its reasoning was later applied more widely within England and Wales.
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