Marriage and Divorce Laws of the World Part 17

EFFECT OF MARRIAGE.--By marriage the wife enters the house of the husband.

A man who marries a woman who is head of a house, or a _mukoyoshi_, enters the house of his wife.

A _mukoyoshi_ is a person who is adopted by another and at the same time marries the daughter of the house who would be the heir to the headship of the house.

A wife is bound to live with her husband. A husband must permit his wife to live with him.

A husband and wife are bound to support each other. When the wife is a minor the husband, if of full age, exercises the functions of a guardian.

A contract made between husband and wife may be cancelled at any time during the marriage by either party, but without prejudice to the rights of third persons.

DIVORCE BY MUTUAL CONSENT.--The husband and wife may effect a divorce by mutual consent. No court procedure is necessary. Just as in giving notice of marriage, the parties consenting to be divorced give notice of such agreement to the registrar, and they are _ipso facto_ divorced.

A person who has not reached the age of twenty-five years, in order to effect a divorce by mutual consent, must obtain the consent of the person or persons whose consent was necessary for the marriage.

If a husband and wife have effected a divorce by mutual consent without arranging as to whom the custody of the children shall belong, it belongs to the husband.

JUDICIAL DIVORCE.--A husband or wife, as the case may be, can bring an action for divorce for the following causes:

1. If the other party contracts a second marriage.

2. If the wife commits adultery.

3. If the husband is sentenced to punishment for an offence specified in Article 348 _et seq._ of the Criminal Code; such offences involving criminal carnal s.e.xuality.

4. If the other party is sentenced to punishment for an offence greater than misdemeanor, involving forgery, bribery, gross s.e.xual immorality, theft, robbery, obtaining property by false pretences, embezzlement of goods deposited, receiving knowingly stolen goods, or any of the offences specified in Articles 175 and 260 of the Criminal Code, or is sentenced to a major imprisonment or more.

5. If one party is so ill-treated or grossly insulted by the other that it makes further living together of the spouses impracticable.

6. If one party is deserted by the other.

7. If one party is ill-treated or grossly insulted by an ascendant of the other party.

8. If an ascendant of one party is ill-treated or grossly insulted by the other party.

9. If it has been uncertain for three years or more whether or not the other party is alive or dead.

10. In the case of the adoption of a _mukoyoshi_, if the adoption is dissolved, or in the case of a marriage of an adopted son with a daughter of the house, if the adoption is dissolved or cancelled.

CHAPTER XVIII.

SPAIN.

Spain is a const.i.tutional and hereditary monarchy, the powers of which are defined by the fundamental law of June 30, 1876. The legislative authority is exercised by the sovereign in conjunction with a parliamentary body called the Cortes, which is composed of two houses, a Senate and a Chamber of Deputies.

Spanish law is founded on the Roman law, the Gothic common law, the National Code of 1501, and the Civil Code of 1888, with its subsequent amendments and additions.

Spanish law is binding in the Spanish Peninsula and adjacent islands, the Canary Islands and such African territory as is subject to Spain.

MARRIAGE.--The law recognizes two forms of marriage: the canonical, which all who profess the Catholic religion should contract; and the civil, which must be celebrated in the manner hereinafter stated.

Marriage is forbidden to:

1. Minors who have not obtained parental consent.

2. To a widow, during the three hundred and one days following the death of her husband or before childbirth, if she has been left pregnant.

3. To a guardian and his or her descendants, with respect to persons who are the wards of such guardian until the ending of the guardianship, and a proper accounting has been rendered by the guardian. An exception to this rule exists when the father of the ward has in his will or in a public instrument expressly authorized such a marriage.

AGE.--A male cannot marry until he has completed his fourteenth year of age; a female until she has completed her twelfth year.

Marriage contracted by persons under p.u.b.erty shall, nevertheless, be _ipso facto_ made legal if a day after having arrived at the legal age of p.u.b.erty, the parties continue to live together without bringing a suit to set aside the marriage, or if the female becomes pregnant before the legal age, or before the inst.i.tution of a suit for annulment.

Persons who are not in the full exercise of their reasoning faculties cannot contract marriage.

The law forbids the marriage of all those who suffer from absolute or relative impotency.

Priests and all other persons bound by a solemn pledge of celibacy in the approved canonical manner are forbidden to contract marriage, unless they have first received the necessary canonical dispensation.

Persons already lawfully married cannot contract a new marriage.

CONSANGUINITY AND AFFINITY.--The following persons cannot contract marriage between themselves:

1. The ascendants and descendants by legitimate or illegitimate blood or affinity.

2. Collaterals by legitimate consanguinity up to and including the fourth degree.

3. Collaterals by legitimate affinity up to and including the fourth degree.

4. Collaterals by natural consanguinity or affinity up to and including the second degree.

5. The adopting father or mother and the adopted child; the latter and the surviving spouse of the adoptees, and the adopters and the surviving spouse of the adopted.

6. The legitimate descendants of the adopter with the adopted, while the relation of adoption continues.

7. Accomplices in adultery who have been judicially sentenced.

Those who have been condemned as princ.i.p.als, or princ.i.p.al and accomplice, in the homicide of the spouse of any of the parties cannot conclude marriage between themselves.

The government for sufficient cause will, on pet.i.tion of a party, grant a dispensation permitting marriage between collaterals by legitimate consanguinity within the fourth degree. Other dispensations may also be granted on a proper pet.i.tion.

PARENTAL CONSENT.--The consent of the father is required for the marriage of a legitimate minor; in his default, or where he cannot consent, the power to grant it devolves, in this order: upon the mother, the paternal and maternal grandparents, and in default of all these, upon the family council.

Recognized natural children or children legitimatized by royal concession must ask the consent of those who have recognized or legitimatized them or of their ascendants, or of the family council.