Marriage and Divorce Laws of the World Part 26

1. When adultery has been committed by either husband or wife.

2. When one of the parties was physically incompetent at the time of marriage.

3. When the husband or wife is guilty of excesses, cruel treatment, or outrages toward the other.

4. In favour of the husband, when the wife shall have voluntarily left his bed or board for the s.p.a.ce of six months with the intention of abandonment.

5. In favour of the wife, when the husband shall have left her for six months with the intention of abandonment.

6. For habitual intemperance.

7. Wilful neglect to provide for his wife the necessaries and comforts of life for six months.

8. When the husband shall have been taken in adultery with another woman.

9. In favour of either husband or wife, when the other shall have been convicted, after marriage, of a felony, and imprisonment in any prison.

ARKANSAS.

The minimum age for marriage is 17 for males; 14 for females.

Parental consent is required for males under 21 years and females under 18 years of age.

The prohibited degrees are the same as in Alabama.

CAUSES FOR ABSOLUTE DIVORCE:

1. Impotency.

2. Desertion for one year.

3. Previous existing marriage.

4. Conviction of felony or infamous crime.

5. Habitual drunkenness continued for one year.

6. Cruel and barbarous treatment endangering life.

7. Indignities which render condition and cohabitation intolerable.

8. Adultery.

LIMITED DIVORCE.--Limited divorces are granted for the same causes.

CALIFORNIA.

MARRIAGE.--Marriage is defined as a personal relation arising out of a civil contract, to which the consent of parties capable of making it is necessary. Consent alone will not const.i.tute marriage; it must be followed by a solemnization authorized by the code. A male must be at least eighteen and a female at least fifteen to conclude marriage.

Parental consent is required if the male is under twenty-one years or the female under eighteen years. Such consent is not required if the minor has been previously lawfully married.

IMPEDIMENTS.--Marriages between parents and children, ancestors and descendants of every degree, and between brothers and sisters of the half as well as the whole blood, and between uncles and nieces or aunts and nephews are incestuous and void, whether the relations.h.i.+p is legitimate or illegitimate.

Marriages between white persons and mulattoes or between white persons and Mongolians are prohibited.

CELEBRATION.--Marriages may be celebrated before any justice of the supreme court, any judge of the superior court, any justice of the peace; or before a priest or minister of the Gospel of any sect.

HUSBAND AND WIFE.--A married woman may acquire, hold and control property of every description the same as a single woman.

DIVORCE.--The following are legal causes for an absolute divorce: Adultery; extreme cruelty; wilful desertion; wilful neglect; habitual intemperance; and conviction by either party of a felony.

All decrees of divorce are first granted _nisi_, and an absolute or final decree cannot be secured until one year after the entry of the decree _nisi_.

Marriages may be annulled on the following grounds: That the party pet.i.tioning for annulment was under age at the date of marriage; that the former husband or wife of either party was living and the former marriage undissolved at the time of the marriage in question; that one of the parties was of unsound mind when the marriage was concluded; that the marriage was procured by fraud; that the marriage was procured by coercion; that at the time of the marriage one of the parties was impotent, and such physical incapacity continues to the date of bringing the suit for annulment.

COLORADO.

MARRIAGE.--Marriage is a civil contract. The minimum marriageable age for males and for females has not been fixed by statute.

Parental consent is required for males under 21 years or for females under 18 years.

IMPEDIMENTS.--All marriages between parents and children, including grandparents and grandchildren, of every degree; between brothers and sisters of the half as well as of the whole blood; and between uncles and nieces and aunts and nephews are declared to be incestuous and void. This provision applies to illegitimate as well as to legitimate children.

The statute contains a provision that persons living in that portion of the State acquired from Mexico are permitted to marry according to the custom of that country.

No person can lawfully conclude marriage within one year after divorce.

Marriages are also forbidden between whites and negroes or mulattoes.

A marriage license is required.

ABSOLUTE DIVORCE:

1. Impotency.

2. A husband or wife living.

3. Adultery.

4. Desertion for one year.

5. Cruelty.

6. Failure to support for one year.