Marriage and Divorce Laws of the World Part 45

The innocent party can revoke the donations or advantages which he or she may have made or promised to the other by the marriage contract, whether they were to have come into effect during the life of the party or after his or her death.

Children less than five years old remain in the mother's custody. Those over that age shall be handed over to the party who, in the opinion of the judge, is most fitted to educate and care for them.

The husband who may have given cause for divorce must continue to support the wife if she have not sufficient means of her own. The judge shall decide the amount and manner in which this shall be done, with due regard to the circ.u.mstances of both parties.

Whichever of the parties may have given cause for divorce will have the right to require the other, if he or she be able to do so, to provide him or her with subsistence, if such be absolutely necessary.

DISSOLUTION OF MARRIAGE.--A legal marriage can only be dissolved by the death of one of the contracting parties.

A marriage which can be dissolved in accordance with the laws of the country in which it was celebrated cannot be dissolved in the Argentine Republic except by the death of one of the parties.

The supposed decease of one of the contracting parties, either through absence or disappearance, will not enable the other to marry again. So long as the decease of one of the contracting parties, either through absence or disappearance, has not been absolutely proved, the marriage is not considered as dissolved.

ANNULMENT OF MARRIAGE.--A marriage may be annulled when it was contracted in violation of some legal impediment, or for want of proper consent.

SECOND OR FURTHER MARRIAGES.--A woman cannot marry again for ten months after a dissolved or annulled marriage, unless she was left pregnant, in which case she may marry after having given birth to the child.

PROOF OF MARRIAGE.--A marriage must be proved by certificate, or copy thereof, of such marriage. If it is impossible to produce the certificate, or its copy, all other means of proof will be allowed, but these other proofs will not be admitted unless it is previously established that such certificate or copy cannot be produced.

CHAPTER XXIX.

THE UNITED STATES OF BRAZIL.

The United States of Brazil (_Estados Unidos do Brazil_), the largest country in South America and one of the most extensive political subdivisions of the world, is a Republic comprising twenty States and a Federal District.

Its present const.i.tution was adopted February 24, 1891, and is in many respects similar to that of the United States of America.

The legislative power is vested in the President of the Republic and a National Congress, consisting of a Senate and Chamber of Deputies.

The individual States are governed by their governors and legislatures, and possess their own judicial systems.

The main body of the civil law has its origin in the Portuguese Code and in the judicial precedents of Portugal.

There is a Supreme Federal Court of Justice, which sits at the capital, Rio de Janeiro, and Federal Courts in each of the twenty States.

Ninety-nine per centum of the people of Brazil are Roman Catholics and consider marriage as a religious sacrament, but the law of the land considers it simply as a civil contract.

MARRIAGE.--The Civil Code defines marriage as a perpetual contract between two persons of different s.e.x to live together and establish a legitimate family.

A civil or legal celebration of marriage is compulsory for all persons, irrespective of race or creed. If after the civil marriage the parties may desire to satisfy their consciences and the mandates of their church or sect by having the marriage solemnized in a religious form, there is no legal objection thereto.

Marriage is forbidden:

1. Of minors under the age of 21 years, unless with parental consent.

2. Of persons of adult age who are incapable of properly governing themselves or their estates, without the authorization of their legal representatives.

3. Of an adulterous wife with her accomplice who has been condemned for the offence.

4. Of a wife or widow who has been condemned as the princ.i.p.al or accomplice of the crime of homicide with a princ.i.p.al or accomplice in the same crime.

5. Of a person bound by solemn vows of religion to a life of chast.i.ty.

The canon law of the Roman Catholic Church is accepted as defining the religious rules and spiritual effects of marriage, but the civil law defines the status and temporal effects of the marriage contract.

PROHIBITED MARRIAGES.--The following persons are forbidden to marry each other:

1. Ascendants and descendants.

2. Persons related collaterally in the second degree.

3. Males who have not completed their fourteenth year and females who have not completed their twelfth year of age.

4. Persons already bound by marriage.

PRELIMINARIES.--The intending parties must present themselves in person before the registrar and produce certificates showing:

A. Full names, ages, occupations and domiciles of the contracting parties.

B. The full names, ages, occupations and domiciles of their parents, or, if they are dead, the same particulars of those who replace them _in loco parentis_.

C. Proof of the consents of such persons who in law are ent.i.tled to give or withhold consent to the proposed marriage.

D. A declaration in writing by two respectable witnesses of full age, certifying acquaintance with the contracting parties, and knowledge that they are not related within the prohibited degrees of kinship.

If either of the contracting parties has been previously married, proof of the death of the former spouse must be given to the registrar.

Upon receiving satisfactory proof as stated above, the registrar must post a notice of the proposed marriage in a conspicuous place in his office, which notice informs all interested persons to file their objections, if any they have, in the registry within fifteen days. If at the end of this period no valid objection to the marriage has been formulated the civil officer proceeds to the celebration of the marriage.

A marriage concluded before a civil officer in the form established by the civil law of Brazil can only be annulled by a civil court.

DIVORCE.--The law of the Republic does not permit of an absolute divorce for any cause whatsoever. A true marriage can only be dissolved by the death of one of the parties.

JUDICIAL SEPARATION.--A separation of the person and goods may be had for the following causes:

1. Adultery of the wife.

2. Adultery of the husband, if such adultery creates a public scandal, or if the husband brings his concubine into the home he has established for his wife.

3. Sentence of one of the spouses to life imprisonment.

4. Cruel and ill-human treatment.

FOREIGN MARRIAGES.--The courts of Brazil recognize as valid a marriage between two foreigners concluded in a foreign land, provided that such marriage is monogamous, is not between ascendants or descendants, or between persons related collaterally in the second degree, and if such marriage was regularly concluded according to the law of the country of its celebration.