American marriage laws in their social aspects : a digest / by Fred S. Hall and Elisabeth W. Brooke.

  • Hall, Fred S. (Fred Smith), 1870-1946.
Date:
1919
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: American marriage laws in their social aspects : a digest / by Fred S. Hall and Elisabeth W. Brooke. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    tested and tried next steps, but the new measures will receive espe- cial attention in our proposed study of marriage law administration. The opinions of two of our authorities regarding the general need for reform in American marriage laws! is expressed in the following quotations: It may reasonably be doubted whether any people in occidental civilization has marriage laws so defective as ours. Almost every conceivable blunder has been committed.? In no part of the whole range of human activity is there such imperative need of state interference and control as in the sphere of the matrimonial relations.® ““ The law makes clear and full provision for contracts affecting the sale of houses and lands, horses and dogs, and goods and chattels. of every description; and why marriage, the most important of all human contracts, should not be as anxiously defined and provided for, and thus placed beyond the reach of both fraud and doubt, appears to me to be one of the greatest anomalies in the law of a Christian country.”’ These are the words of an eminent Scotch lawyer, with reference to ih law of Scotland. They equally apply to the common law of the United tates. A striking illustration of the general defect against which this complaint is lodged appears in a statement recently noted in the Montana Code of Laws to the effect that ‘‘the provisions of other portions of the Code in relation to contracts and the capacity of persons to enter into them have no application to the contract of marriage.” That two of our authorities do not regard the proposals here made as panaceas for all our matrimonial ills is apparent from the follow- ing paragraphs: It should clearly be understood at the outset that the moderate progressives, in favoring reform of the domestic relations codes of the various nations are not unduly optimistic with regard to the happy results to be secured by such methods. 1 It is interesting to note that the marriage laws in one of our dependencies, the Panama Canal Zone, reflecting as they do the laws of continental Europe, are nearer the standards recommended by our authorities in at least two particulars than are the laws of most of our states. Thus common law marriages are not recognized, and a 15 days’ notice of intention to marry is required. In addition a solemnization must be before a civil official, his secretary, and two witnesses, the celebrant being obliged to inquire of the contracting parties whether they join in matrimony of their own free will, and to inform them of the nature of the contract ~ and of the mutual duties they are to assume. 2 Howard, George Elliott: ‘‘Social Control of the Domestic Relations,” Pa- pers and Proceedings, American Sociological Society, Vol. V, p. 222. The Uni- versity of Chicago Press, 1911. 8’ Howard, George Elliott: A History of Matrimonial Institutions, -Vol. III, p. 184. The University of Chicago Press, 1904. 4 Cook, p. 245.