Annulment

Annulment is a legal procedure within secular and religious legal systems for declaring a marriage null and void.^[1] Unlike divorce, it is usually retroactive, meaning that an annulled marriage is considered to be invalid from the beginning almost as if it had never taken place (though some jurisdictions provide that the marriage is only void from the date of the annulment; for example, this is the case in section 12 of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 in England and Wales).^[2] In legal terminology, an annulment makes a void marriage or a voidable marriage null.^[3]

^ Statsky, William (1996). Statsky's Family Law: The Essentials. Delmar Cengage Learning. pp. 85–86. ISBN 1-4018-4827-3.
^ "Report on Family Law (Scot Law Com No 135, 1992)". Scitlawcom.gov.uk. See paragraph 8.23."In English law a decree of nullity in respect of a voidable marriage now has prospective effect only. It operates "to annul the marriage only as respects any time after the decree has been made absolute, and the marriage shall, notwithstanding the decree, be treated as if it has existed up to that time.""
^ John L. Esposito (2002), Women in Muslim Family Law, Syracuse University Press, ISBN 978-0815629085, pp. 33–34