Bigamy, according to the canonists, consisted in marrying two virgins successively, one after the death of the other, or in once marrying a widow; and persons so offending were held to be afterwards disqualified for holy orders. But according to the ordinary English use of the word since the 13th century, bigamy is the entering into a second marriage while the first subsists; and this is condemned by the civil law and the church law of all modern civilised states. The severe English statute of 1604 was modified in 1829, punishment of penal servitude (for not more than seven years) and imprisonment being substituted for that of death. The Scottish statute of 1551 was directed against the perjury involved in the violation of the solemn marriage oath taken in church; but even in cases of the most irregular marriage by the mere exchange of consent, bigamy is recognised by the common law of Scotland as an offence, and in spite of the protests of Baron Hume, has frequently been punished by imprisonment, and penal servitude is, in the discretion of the judge, also sometimes inflicted. An account of some foreign laws will be found in the Report of the Royal Commission on the Marriage Laws, 1868.
The English Act of 1829 excepts from its provisions the following four cases: (1) That of a second marriage contracted out of England by one who is not a subject of the realm. (2) That of any person marrying a second time, whose husband or wife shall have been continually absent from such person for the space of seven years, and shall not have been known by such person to be living within that time. (3) That of a person who, at the time of such second marriage, shall have been delivered from the bond of the first marriage on grounds recognised by English law. (4) That of a person whose former marriage shall have been declared void from the beginning by any court of competent jurisdiction. These exceptions bring out some points of difference between the English and Scottish laws. (1) The Scottish law would treat the foreign marriage as an offence against the law protecting the first marriage at home, and would therefore punish in this case also. (2) Reasonable ground for believing in the death of the first spouse would be a defence to a prosecution for bigamy in Scotland, although seven years had not elapsed. (3) The English law does not recognise divorce from the first marriage as a defence, unless it has been given in such circumstances as justify divorce on the comparatively limited grounds recognised by the English Divorce Act. Hence, in the famous case of Lolley, an Englishman was convicted of bigamy in England, although he had obtained in Scotland a divorce from the first marriage on the ground of adultery. There is a tendency in the English courts now to treat divorce as an incident of the law of the domicile of the spouses, but the matter remains in an unsatisfactory position. (4) It will be understood that bigamy is committed whatever may be the legal impediment otherwise (e.g. relationship) to the attempted second marriage. The unmarried person who knowingly enters into a bigamous marriage is treated as a principal in the second degree in England, and as art and part in Scotland.
In the United States, bigamy is everywhere treated as a crime, punishable by fine and imprisonment. It is punished in the several states by state laws giving the courts discretionary power to fix the punishment. The law gives the minimum and maximum punishment, usually from one to three years' imprisonment and 500 and 1000 fine.