CHAPTER XXVII.

THE REPUBLIC OF MEXICO.

Mexico is a federative Republic composed of twenty-seven States, three Territories and a Federal District.

Under the present Constitution, which is dated February 5, 1857, each State has the power to control its own local domestic concerns and to have its own separate executive, legislature and judiciary.

The Civil Code of the Federal District (_El Codigo Civil de Distrito Federal_) was enacted simply for the Federal District and the Territories of Lower California, Tepic and Quintana Roo, but each of the twenty-seven States have in their respective Civil Codes adopted the provisions of the Federal Civil Code, especially with reference to the law of marriage and divorce. Therefore, we find it unnecessary to deal with each State separately.

MARRIAGE.--The courts of Mexico, following the Federal Code, define marriage as the lawful co-partnership of one man and one woman united for life in an indissoluble bond to perpetuate their species and to render each other mutual assistance, fidelity and sympathy in bearing together the burdens of life.

The law does not recognize in any manner future espousals, nor any conditions contrary to the legitimate purposes of marriage.

Marriage must be preceded by the statutory preliminaries and be celebrated before authorized officials with all such formalities as are by law required.

A male must be at least 14 years of age and a female at least 12 years of age to contract marriage, unless a dispensation from the superior political authority is obtained permitting marriage at an earlier age. Such a dispensation can only be obtained in exceptional cases and for good cause.

Parental consent is required for the marriage of both males and females under the age of 21 years. If the father is dead the consent of the mother is sufficient. If both the father and mother are dead then the consent of the paternal grandfather will suffice. If he is also dead the paternal grandmother must give consent. In the event of both paternal grandparents being dead the maternal grandparents take their place and exercise the _patria potestad_.

IMPEDIMENTS.--The impediments to marriage are:

1. Incapacity of the parties, as when one or both are under age.

2. Absence of the consent of parents or of the person exercising the rights of a parent.

3. Mistake as to the identity of either party.

4. Relationship within the prohibited degrees.

CONSANGUINITY AND AFFINITY.--Marriages are prohibited between ascendants and descendants; between brothers and sisters of the whole or half blood; between uncles and nieces; aunts and nephews, and all other persons related by blood or marriage within the third degree.

The laws of Mexico recognize no relationship other than one by consanguinity and affinity.

Each generation constitutes a degree, and the series of degrees constitute the line of relationship.

OTHER PROHIBITIONS:

A. A marriage is prohibited when either of the intending parties has a husband or wife still living.

B. If one of the parties has made an attempt against the life of the husband or wife of the other with the intention of marrying the survivor.

C. If one of the parties has obtained the apparent consent of the other by fear, coercion or duress.

D. If either of the parties is permanently and incurably insane.

FORMALITIES.--Parties intending to conclude marriage must personally appear before the judge of civil status of the domicile of either party, and state their intention. The judge will thereupon make an entry in a register kept for that purpose of the names, occupations and domiciles of both of the contracting parties, the names, occupations and domiciles of their parents, if the same be ascertainable, the names, occupations and domiciles of the witnesses whom the parties present to the judge as knowing the legal capacity of the parties, and proof of the consents of the parents, or of such persons as are lawfully exercising the rights of the parents.

If either of the contracting parties has been previously married the judge must require proper evidence that the former consort is dead.

If it appears that there exists any impediment to the intended marriage which could be removed by a dispensation from the superior political authority such dispensation must be exhibited.

Upon the judge receiving the required proof that the parties may be legally married he will cause a copy of the record to be posted in a conspicuous place in his office for 15 days, and two similar copies must be posted in the usual public places. If, during the publication as aforesaid, and for three days thereafter, no valid opposition is made by any one to the marriage, it becomes the duty of the judge, upon request of the parties, to fix the place, day and hour for the celebration.

A marriage must be celebrated in public at the place and time previously fixed by the judge. The parties must appear in person or by their specially appointed proxies, and be attended by at least three adult witnesses, who may be relatives.

The parties, by themselves, or by their specially appointed proxies, must formally declare to the judge in the presence of the witnesses their intention to take each other as husband and wife, upon which declaration the judge shall pronounce them man and wife and make an official record of the marriage.

RIGHTS AND OBLIGATIONS OF MARRIAGE.--Husband and wife are obliged to be faithful to each other, and each must contribute his or her part to the objects of the marriage. They are under mutual obligation to succor and protect one another and to render each to the other affection and sympathy.

It is a wife's duty to live with her husband and to follow him wherever he may choose to go and accept his selection of a conjugal home.

A husband is obligated to provide alimentation (_alimentos_) to his wife even though she may have brought no property into the marital community. By alimentation is meant not only necessary food, but raiment and things of personal necessity and comfort commensurate with the husband's ability to make such provision. The husband owes his wife the duty of protecting her person and reputation.

The wife must obey her husband in domestic concerns, in the matter of training and educating the children of the marriage and in all affairs connected with the common property and the household.

If the wife has property of her own she must furnish alimentation (food, clothing and lodging) to her husband when he is in want and cannot obtain it for himself.

If a husband proposes to leave the Republic to live in a foreign land the wife may apply to the courts to be relieved from the usual duty of adopting her husband's residence.

The husband is the legitimate representative and manager of all of the property of the marriage. He is ordinarily his wife's representative in legal proceedings. A wife generally cannot appear either personally or by attorney in a suit at law without her husband's authorization in writing.

If she is of full age a wife does not require her husband's authorization in the following instances:

A. To defend herself in a criminal action.

B. To bring a suit against her husband.

C. To devise or bequeath her own separate property by a will.

D. When her husband is in what the Mexican lawyers call a state of interdiction, as, for example, when he is under guardianship or insane.

E. When she is in business on her separate account and the suit or proceeding relates to such business.

DIVORCE.--It is in the chapter of the Civil Code entitled "_Del divorcio_" that we find the statutory provisions concerning divorce. The chapter begins by stating positively that divorce (_divorcio_) does not dissolve the bonds of matrimony. We must remember that the Federal Code is founded upon the Spanish Code, and that both Mexico and Spain, being historically Roman Catholic countries, reflect the leading dogmas of the Catholic Church in their civil jurisprudence. What is called a divorce in Mexican law is at the most a separation from bed and board. It simply suspends certain of the civil obligations and effects of marriage.

CAUSES FOR DIVORCE:

1. Adultery of the wife under any circumstances.

2. Adultery of the husband, if the adultery is committed in the conjugal home, or if the husband is living in concubinage, or if the husband's adultery causes a public scandal and attracts public contempt or insult to the wife, or if the wife has been ill used by word or deed by her husband's paramour or on account of her.

3. If the husband proposes or plans to prostitute his wife, or accepts from a third person any money, article or valuable consideration for the purpose of effecting such prostitution.

4. When either spouse instigates or encourages the other to commit a crime.

5. The attempt by positive acts by either husband or wife to corrupt their children or by deliberately permitting third persons to practice such corruption.

6. Abandonment without just and legal cause of the conjugal home (_casa comun_), or if there is just and legal cause for such abandonment, to remain away for one year or more without beginning a suit for divorce.

7. Cruelty, threats or injury of a serious nature by one spouse against the other.

8. False accusation of a grave nature made by either party against the other.

9. The refusal, or wilful neglect, of one spouse to furnish alimentation, or support, to the other, in accordance with law.

10. Incorrigible vices of gambling or drunkenness.

11. The existence of a chronic and incurable disease which is hereditary or contagious afflicting one of the spouses previous to the marriage, of which the other spouse had no knowledge when the marriage was concluded.

12. If the wife gives birth to a child conceived before marriage, which child has been judicially declared illegitimate.

13. An infringement or violation of the marriage settlements (_capitulaciones matrimoniales_).

14. Mutual consent of the parties.

PROCEEDINGS FOR DIVORCE.--Even if the spouses consent to a divorce there must be a formal legal proceeding. In such a case the suit is begun by a petition to the judge setting forth clearly the consent to divorce and the agreement of the parties as to the maintenance of the wife, the custody of the children and the disposition or division of the property held in common.

When such a petition is filed it becomes the duty of the judge to summon the parties before him and to endeavour to effect a reconciliation.

In a suit where the spouses do not mutually consent to a divorce, it is still the legal duty of the judge to attempt a reconciliation of the parties.

ANNULMENT OF MARRIAGE.--While the Mexican law does not recognize absolute divorce it does provide for the annulment or setting aside absolutely of certain marriages. Marriages are voidable and may be annulled in the courts on the following grounds:

A. If the parties are related within the prohibited degrees of consanguinity and affinity.

B. If the parties, or either of them, were incapable by reason of non-age or otherwise of legally concluding marriage.

C. If the necessary parental consent, or consent of the person exercising the _patria potestad_, was not had.

D. If the marriage was irregular or contrary to law, as, for example, if the proper publication was omitted, or no witnesses attended the celebration.

E. If there exists in either party, and existed before the marriage, an incurable impotency for copulation.

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 petitioner discovers the facts which constitute 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.