Act 1858, application may be made to the Probate, Divorce and Admiralty

Court (in Scotland, to the Court of Session by action of declarator) for a declaration of legitimacy and of the validity of a marriage. The status of legitimacy in any country depending upon the fact of the child having been born in wedlock, it may be concluded that any question as to the legitimacy of a child turns either on the validity of the marriage or on whether the child has been born in wedlock.

_Legitimation_ effected by the subsequent marriage of the parents of the illegitimate child is technically known as legitimation _per subsequens matrimonium_. This adoption of the Roman law principle is followed by most of the states of the continent of Europe (with distinctions, of course, as to _certain_ illegitimate children, or as to the forms of acknowledgment by the parent or parents), in the Isle of Man, Guernsey, Jersey, Lower Canada, St Lucia, Trinidad, Demerara, Berbice, Cape Colony, Ceylon, Mauritius; it has been adopted in New Zealand (Legitimation Act 1894), South Australia (Legitimation Act 1898, amended 1902), Queensland (Legitimation Act 1899), New South Wales (Legitimation