Judgment No. CCZ 12/2015 57 Const. Application No. 79/14 An equivalent provision in the earlier COPAC Draft, Proposal 1, stated as follows: “4.25 Marriage 1) Everyone who has attained the age of eighteen years has the right to marry and found a family and no such person may be prevented from entering into marriage 2) No one may be compelled to enter into marriage against their will.” [emphasis added] What is critical to note here is that the COPAC Proposal 1 formulation clearly linked the right to marry with the right to found a family and stipulated the minimum age of eighteen as a requirement for the enjoyment of the right to marry and/or found a family. The next COPAC Draft, the 18 July 2012 Draft, juxtaposes the minimum age of eighteen years with the concept of “marriageable age” in a most confusing manner, thus: “4.35 Marriage rights 1) Every person who has attained the age of eighteen years has the right to marry a person of the opposite sex who is of marriageable age, and no such person may be prevented from entering into such a marriage 2) Every person who has attained the age of eighteen years has the right to found a family 3) No person may be compelled to enter into marriage against their will.” It is not clear in this draft how the entitlement to marry upon attaining eighteen years can be attenuated by the concept of marriageable age. However, the Draft provisions show that when the drafters formulated the final provision in s78, they were fully cognisant of