Marriage and Divorce Laws of the World Part 44

Want of legal age of either party is not a ground for annulment if a child is born, the issue of the union.

And if either party, or both, were under the legal age at the time of marriage, a decree of annulment will not be granted if, upon becoming twenty-one years of age, the spouses continue to cohabit together.

Such marriages as we have pointed out above are not void, but voidable, and any of the grounds sufficient for annulment may be waived by the aggrieved spouse.

EFFECTS OF DIVORCE.--Divorce can only be granted to the innocent party, and suit therefor must be brought within one year after the pet.i.tioner discovers the facts which const.i.tute a legal cause for a decree.

The innocent party, pending the action, or even after the final decree, may require the other party to resume the marriage relationship.

The most usual effect of a divorce is a physical separation of the spouses.

If the wife is the guilty party she may, on her husband's suggestion, be directed by the judge to live in a certain house, for the protection of the good name of the husband.

Upon the finding of a decree of divorce, if the parties have not reached an appropriate agreement, the judge will make such directions as to the maintenance of the wife, custody of children and division of common property as justice may require.

FOREIGN MARRIAGES.--Marriages concluded between foreigners in a foreign country, which are valid in that country, will be recognized as valid for all civil effects in Mexico.

A marriage between a Mexican citizen and a foreigner, or between two Mexican citizens, and concluded in a foreign country, will be valid for all civil effects in Mexico, provided such marriage was concluded according to the law of the foreign country and is not in violation of the Mexican laws as to the prohibited degrees of relationship, capacity to contract and consent of persons in _loco parentis_.

Foreign laws (_leyes extranjeras_) must be established as matters of fact by the persons relying upon their existence, and their application to questions at issue must also be shown.

Within three months after a Mexican citizen who has concluded marriage in a foreign country returns to the Republic, he or she must cause the inscription of the celebration to be entered in the Civil Register of his or her domicile.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

ARGENTINE REPUBLIC.

The Civil Code of the Argentine Republic shows strong evidences of the Spanish origin of its precepts. As in the old motherland marriage is considered as indissoluble except by the death of one of the contracting parties. However, the Republic does not accept the decrees of the Council of Trent or the canonical law of the Catholic Church on the subject of marriage as parts of the law of the land.

As a matter of religion the people of Argentina may consider marriage as a sacrament or divine ordinance, or not, as it pleases their consciences, but as a matter of law marriage in the Argentine Republic is simply a civil contract.

ESSENTIALS OF MARRIAGE.--For the validity of marriage there must be the consent of two contracting parties declared before the public official in charge of the civil register. The contract can be declared by proxy, but only with a special authorization from the princ.i.p.al, in which the person with whom the proxy has to conclude the marriage is clearly described.

IMPEDIMENTS.--The existence of any of the following conditions make a marriage unlawful:

1. Consanguinity between ascendants and descendants without limitation, whether legitimate or illegitimate.

2. Consanguinity between brothers and sisters and half brothers and sisters, legitimate or illegitimate.

3. Affinity in the direct line in all degrees.

4. The woman not being twelve and the man fourteen years of age.

5. The existence of a previous marriage.

6. Where one of the parties has been voluntarily the author of, or the accomplice in the death of, the former husband or wife of the other.

7. Insanity.

8. A woman over twelve years of age and a man over fourteen, but minors, and the deaf and dumb who cannot write cannot bind themselves in marriage without the consent of their legitimate father, or, failing him, without their mother's consent, or that of their guardian, or of the judicial consent or permission, in the absence of the above. The civil judge will decide in cases of disagreement.

9. A guardian, or his descendants under his power, cannot marry minors under his guardianship so long as the latter lasts.

PRELIMINARIES.--Those who desire to marry must present themselves before the public official in charge of the civil register, at the domicile of one of the parties, and verbally declare their intention to marry. Two witnesses are required who, from their knowledge of the contracting parties, can declare as to their ident.i.ty and that they consider them capable of being married.

CELEBRATION.--The marriage must be celebrated before the official charged with the civil registry in his office, publicly, the bride and bridegroom, or their proxies, appearing in person, in the presence of two witnesses and with the formalities prescribed by law. If either of the contracting parties are unable to appear at the registry office the marriage may be celebrated at his (or her) residence.

If the marriage be celebrated in the registry office two witnesses must be present, and four witnesses if it is celebrated at the domicile of either of the contracting parties.

In celebrating the marriage the Public Registrar must read to the contracting parties those portions of the law which define the rights and obligations of married couples. He must also receive from each the declaration that they respectively desire to take each other as husband and wife. He must also formally declare the couple to be man and wife.

There is no legal objection to a religious celebration of marriage following the civil ceremony, which alone is treated as legally effective.

HUSBAND AND WIFE.--The contracting parties are bound to be mutually faithful, but the infidelity of the one does not excuse the infidelity of the other. The one who breaks this obligation can be proceeded against by the other in the divorce courts without prejudice to what is laid down on the subject by the Penal Code.

The husband is bound to live in the same house as his wife and to give her all necessary a.s.sistance, protection and support.

If there be no marriage contract to the contrary, the husband is the legal administrator of all the property belonging to the married couple, including that of the wife, as well as that which they possessed at marriage as of that subsequently acquired by them in their own right.

The wife is bound to live with the husband wherever he may fix his residence.

A wife cannot, without her husband's permission, go to law, make any contract, or acquire goods, nor alienate or pledge goods without such permission. The wife may, of course, in certain cases, such as divorce, acquire judicial authorization for prosecuting or defending a suit in the courts.

DIVORCE.--The courts of the Argentine Republic grant divorces, but in effect they only amount to a personal separation of the parties to a marriage, without the dissolution of the bonds of matrimony.

These so-called divorces are granted for the following causes:

1. Adultery of the husband or wife.

2. Attempt by one of the parties on the life of the other, either personally or as an accomplice.

3. The instigation of one of the parties by the other to commit adultery or other crimes.

4. Cruelty.

5. Serious injuries. In estimating the gravity of the injury the judge will take into consideration the education and social position of the parties.

6. Such ill-treatment, even if not serious, as renders married life unsupportable.

7. Wilful and malicious desertion.

EFFECTS OF THE DIVORCE.--If the wife be of age she can exercise all the usual acts of civil life.

Each of the parties can fix his or her domicile or residence where he or she thinks fit, even if it be abroad. However, if the party have children under his or her care, they cannot be taken abroad without the permission of the court of their domicile.