Page:Harvard Law Review Volume 32.djvu/513

MARRIAGE BY PROXY AND THE CONFLICT OF LAWS 477 generally been superseded on the continent to-day by civil marriage acts whose object it is, as their name indicates, to make marriage a purely civil institution. These acts aim to give due publicity to the proposed marriage and to make certain, so far as possible, that the marriage is the voluntary and deliberative act of the parties. Marriage by proxy obviously violates the objects of these acts, for there can be no certainty at the time of the marriage that the power of attorney was not given under circmnstances constituting fraud, mistake or duress, or that it was not revoked prior to the celebration of the marriage. The Code Napoleon does not prohibit marriage by proxy in express terms. Article 75 of the Code requires the officer of the civil status, however, to read to the parties the different documents required by law respecting their civil status and the Code pro- visions dealing with the mutual rights and duties of husband and wife. This requirement would be purposeless if the parties were not present in person. The framers of the Code ^^ without doubt intended to prohibit marriage by proxy and the provisions of the Code are so understood to-day .^^ The French writers maintain that in the absence of an express provision in the Code declaring a marriage by proxy void a marriage so celebrated before an officer of the civil status must be deemed valid.^^ The Court of Bastia has taken the contrary view,^^ ^ At a meeting of the Council of State the first consul stated without being con- tradicted by any one "le mariage n' a plus lieu qu' entre personnes presentes." 2 LocKjfe, Legislation Civile, Commerciale et Criminelle, 365. The ancient law of France allowed marriage by proxy. This was still the law at the time of Pothier. 6 Pothier, Oeuvres, 3 ed., No. 367. ^ 7 AuBRY & Rau, Cours de Droit Civil Franqais, 5 ed., § 466; 2 Baudry Lacantinerie & Houques-Fourcade, Traite Theorique et Pratique de Droit Civil. Des Personnes, Vol. 2, No. 1597; i Beudant, Cours de Droit Civil Franqais, . No. 222; I Demante, Cours Analytique de Code Civil, 3 ed., 357; 3 Demolombe, Cours de Code Napoleon, No. 210; i Duranton, Cours de Droit Franqais SuivANT le CoDb Civil, No. 287; Fuzier-Herman, Codes Annot£s, Code Civil, Art. 36, Nos. 2 et seq.; Art. 75, No. 5; Glasson, Du Consentement des Epoux au Mariage, No. 108; i Hue, Commentaire Theorique et Pratique du Code Civil, No. 345 ; 2 Laurent, Principes de Droit Civil Franc;ais, No. 427; i Marcad£, Explication Theorique et Pratique du Code Napoleon, No. 23 1 . Contra, Merlin, Repertoire, Mariage, Sec. 4, § i, Art. i, Quest. 4; i Touxlier, Droit Civil Fran- CAis, No. 574. ^ 7 AuBRY & Rau, supra, § 467; 3 Demolombe, j«^a, No, 210; Glasson, j«^a. No. 109; 2 Laurent, supra. No. 485. ^ Bastia, April 2, 1849, I>- 49, 2, 80; S. 49, 2, 338.