Spousesrightsrefer tothe general rights regulating the mutualrelationship betweenthespouses and having all their interestsas the subject matterin their legal andvalidmarriage.
According to Alpert, the issuance of a marriage license is a mandatory prerequisite to a validmarriage in California and generally comes before the ceremony.
The courts grant a divorce to mark the end of a marriage that was valid when entered into, whereas an annulment is for a marriage that at no time was valid (as when one of the parties was under the age of consent at the time of the marriage).
In most places, a marriage is valid if the license was properly filed and the parties held themselves out as being married, even when the only qualification of the officiant was an Internet certificate of ordination.