Marriage and Divorce Laws of the World Part 11

CONSENT OF PARENTS.--A male requires the consent of no third party. Any female under 21 years of age requires the consent of her marriage guardian.

CONSANGUINITY AND AFFINITY.--Marriage is prohibited between relatives by blood in the direct line or between two relatives by blood in the collateral line, one or both of whom are descended in the first degree from the common ancestor.

Marriage is also prohibited between relatives by affinity in the direct line.

In all cases relationship by illegitimate as well as legitimate birth is included.

A divorced person who has been adjudged guilty of adultery cannot contract a new marriage without the consent of the innocent party, provided the latter is still living and has not remarried. Under no conditions can the guilty party marry his or her accomplice.

No man or woman who is bound by a betrothal or by an undissolved marriage can marry a third person.

A widower must not contract a new marriage within six months after the death of his wife, nor a widow within one year after the death of her husband.

PRELIMINARIES.--On three successive Sundays or holy days previous to a wedding banns must be published from the pulpit of the State church in the parish in which the prospective bride resides.

CELEBRATION.--The usual form of marriage is the religious ceremony. This alone is valid in case the man and woman belong to the same religious sect. An adherent of the State church who has never been baptized or who has never been prepared for the rite of the Lord's Supper has recourse only to a civil marriage. This is also the case in a marriage between a Christian and a Jew and in a marriage between parties who belong to a Christian church the clergy of which have not been granted the right to perform marriages.

DIVORCE AND JUDICIAL SEPARATION.--Grounds for Judicial Divorce. An absolute divorce can be granted by court on the following grounds:

1. Adultery.

2. Illicit intercourse with a third party after betrothal.

3. Malicious desertion for at least one year, provided the absentee has left the Kingdom.

4. Absence without news for six years.

5. An attack on the life.

6. Life imprisonment.

7. Insanity of at least three years' duration and p.r.o.nounced incurable by physicians.

ROYAL PREROGATIVE.--All the grounds for divorce by royal prerogative are not definitely determined. The following alone are specifically mentioned in the law:

1. Judicial condemnation to death or to civil death, even if a royal pardon is granted.

2. Judicial condemnation for a gross offence or an offence incurring temporary loss of civil rights.

3. Judicial condemnation to imprisonment for at least two years.

4. Proof of prodigality, inebriety or a violent disposition.

5. Opposition of feeling or thought between the husband and wife which pa.s.ses over into aversion and hate, provided that a separation from bed and board has been granted on this ground and lasted for a year without a reconciliation taking place during the interval.

LIMITATIONS TO RIGHT OF ACTION.--Collusion, connivance, condonation or recrimination extinguishes the right to a divorce.

In a case of adultery divorce will be granted only if the innocent spouse has inst.i.tuted proceedings within six months after obtaining knowledge of the offence, has not condoned it by cohabitation or otherwise and has not been guilty of a similar offence.

If the insanity of the defendant in a divorce suit has been caused, or even accelerated by the cruel treatment of the complainant, divorce will be refused.

PROCEDURE.--In a case of desertion, if the whereabouts of the guilty party is unknown, the court, by means of publication in all the pulpits of the district, orders him to return within a year and a day. If he does not present himself within the time mentioned the judge p.r.o.nounces the divorce. Where the ground is insanity the judge must give a hearing to the nearest relatives of the afflicted party and investigate carefully the married life of the couple, in order to learn whether the insanity was caused or even accelerated by the plaintiff.

The State's attorney is not authorized to interfere in a suit for divorce, nor are attempts at reconciliation required.

The court can, however, advise a reconciliation, with or without the adjournment of the case.

JUDICIAL SEPARATION.--This is often only the preliminary to an absolute divorce. It can be granted when hate and violent anger arise between husband and wife and one of them reports the matter to the rector of the parish. It is the duty of the rector to admonish the couple. If they do not become reconciled they are to be further admonished by the consistory.

If this admonition also proves fruitless the court grants a separation from bed and board for one year. The law provides also that this procedure may be followed in cases of malicious desertion, where the guilty party remains in the country or where one party drives the other from home.

CHAPTER XIII.

DENMARK.

Justice is administered in Denmark in the first instance by the judges of the hundreds in the rural communities and by the city magistrates in the urban districts. Appeals from such courts lie to the superior courts of Copenhagen and Viborg, and in the last resort to the Supreme Court, which consists of a bench of twenty-four judges, at Copenhagen.

Denmark was one of the first countries in Europe in which the government established any regulation or control over matrimonial affairs.

The body of the law on marriage and divorce is found to-day in the Code of Christian the Fifth (1683), as modified and modernized, and such customs and precedents of the Danish people as the courts accept as binding.

BETROTHAL.--A betrothal or engagement to marry carries with it no legal obligation. The courts of Denmark do not recognize the breach of a promise to marry as const.i.tuting a legal cause of action.

If, however, a woman, on promise of marriage, permits s.e.xual intercourse, she can sue to have the marriage specifically performed, provided the man is at least 25 years of age and the woman herself is of good reputation and neither a widow nor a domestic servant who has become pregnant by her employer or one of his relatives. In addition, the betrothal must either have been public or capable of easy proof.

QUALIFICATIONS FOR MARRIAGE.--A male cannot legally conclude marriage before the completion of his twentieth year. A female must have completed her sixteenth year. The King may grant a dispensation permitting parties of less age to marry.

Males and females are minors until the completion of their twenty-fifth year, and during minority cannot conclude marriage without the consent of their parents or guardians. If the necessary consent is withheld without just cause the authorities can furnish the desired permission.

IMPEDIMENTS.--Marriage is prohibited between relatives in the direct line, whether by blood or marriage, and between brothers and sisters of the whole or half blood.

The royal dispensation is required for marriage between a man and his brother's widow, his aunt, great-aunt or any feminine relative nearer of kin to the common ancestor than the man himself.

Persons convicted of having committed adultery with each other may not marry without having first obtained permission of the civil authorities.

Persons divorced by extra-judicial decree are not allowed to contract a new marriage, without permission to this effect is given in the decree.

The law prescribes a mourning period of one year for a widow and three months for a widower, during which time they are not allowed to contract a new marriage; but under special conditions the mourning period may be shortened.

PRELIMINARY FORMALITIES.--If the marriage is solemnized before a clergyman banns must be published from the pulpit for three consecutive Sundays, and the marriage must follow within three months. In case of a civil marriage one publication must be made by the authorities at least three weeks and not more than three months before the celebration.

CELEBRATION.--The national church of Denmark is the Lutheran, and in the case of Protestant Christians a religious marriage must be solemnized before a clergyman of the Lutheran Church.

Civil marriages performed at the courthouse by a magistrate are permitted when the bride and groom are of different religious faith or when neither of them belong to any recognized religious sect.

ILLEGITIMATE CHILDREN.--Subsequent marriage of the parents legitimatizes a child born out of wedlock.