Morning journal and courier., 1882-08-24
Thursday Morning, August 24, 1882.
A NEEDED REFORN M

One of the important subjects discussed at ! the recent meeting at Liverpool of the Inter national Congress for tho Reform and Codi- fication of the Law of Nations that of the conflict of marriage laws in different countries. Sir Travers Twiss, who read a paper, pointed out that there cannot be 8 higher international duty for States than to concert ia measures that shall maintain the ] good faith of contract which, as it has been we'll said by high judicial authority, is the basis of the whole fabric of civilized society He reviewed what has been done towards les- sening the conflict of marriage laws. Eng land, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Belgium have consular marriage laws, but none of these States except England author izes it's consuls to marry women of their own nationality to foreign men. The functions of the consuls as celebrants as witnesses of 8 ! marriage are limited to cases where both the parties to the marriage are of the consul's own nationality, or where the man of the eonsuIs nationality intermarries with for eign woman. The validity of consular ! marriage, he went on to say, could be inn peached everywhere except in the consuls own country. The great value of this con- sular marriage, if it be looked at as an insti- tuition of civil society, which in all probabili- ty would become generally adopted in course of time by all States who have commercial establishments in the far East, was that it would supply trustworthy proof of the con- tract of marriage where such proof would not be otherwise forthcoming
 M Clunet, of Paris, thought there was very little hope of agreeing to uniform in- ternational law in regard to the marriage law, but an international treaty legalizing in
 one country the marriages which took place
 in another might be come to. Such treaty
 would of course not be agreed to by all the
 nations, but it would be matter of the greatest importance for such treaty to be
 made between England and France. These
 two nations were particularly interested in
 the subject, and he thought that the consuls
 of either nation should have power to oele-
 brate marriages, and that the marriage cole
 brated by consul should be regarded as
 legal in either country. He moved the fol
 lowing resolution That special committee
 be appointed to urge upon the government of
 Great Britain the necessity of negotiating
 treaties with foreign powers, especially with
 EranCe, IOE tAS putpooo OL AoSoin.AaS sno
 necessary conditions of valid marriage be-
 tween citizens of different nationalities."
 Mr David Dudley Field seconded the reso
 lution and argued that what was valid mar
 riage in one country should be made Valid
 in every other country. The resolution
 was carried, and then MT. Freeland,
 of London, moved ''That this confer
 ence adopts resolution embodying the
 opinions expressed by Sir Robert Phillimore
 in 1S79-viz, that in this contract of con-
 tracts marriage before civil officer. accord
 ing to the forms and with the delays pre-
 scribed by the civil law of the country where
 it is celebrated, should be everywhere recog-
 nized as valid" This resolution was also adopted.
 It is astonishing, or would be astonishing
 if this were not the world it is, that active measures have not been taken before to carry out this proposed reform. A legal marriage in any civilized country clearly ought to be legal in any other, and tho soon CT it is made so the better. By such ar raneement much trouble would be avoided and great wrongs prevented.