CHAPTER III.
Scotland.
The Act of Union between England and Scotland, A. D. 1707 (6 Anne, c. 2), which made one legislature, the present British Parliament, for the two countries, expressly provided that the existing law and judicial procedure of each kingdom should be continued, except so far as they might be repealed by the Act, or by subsequent legislation. The foundation of Scottish jurisprudence is the Roman law, and the canon law which is derived from it, consequently the law of marriage and divorce in Scotland differs from that of England. The status of marriage by Scottish law may be created in any one of three ways: First, by regular or public marriage celebrated in a church or private house by a minister of religion; second, by an irregular or clandestine marriage entered into without the assistance of a clergyman or any other third party, and, third, by declaration, or declarator, wherein the parties make a declaration confessing an irregular union, and are fined for the “offence,” and obtain an extract of the “sentence” which answers to the purpose of a certificate of marriage.
The Scottish definition of marriage is given by Lord Penzance as follows: “The voluntary union of one man and one woman to the exclusion of all others.”
Impediments.—Males under fourteen and females under twelve cannot marry, but if persons under age, called in the Scottish law “pupils,” live together and continue to do so after both have passed their nonage they are considered married, on the ground that there is evidence of a contract after the impediment has ceased to exist.
Insanity.—An insane person cannot give a valid consent and therefore the insanity of either party is an impediment.
Intoxication.—There can be no marriage if one of the parties at the time of the formal union was so intoxicated as to be bereft of reason, but a marriage voidable on the ground of either insanity or intoxication may be validated by the consent of both parties after a return to sanity or sobriety.
Consanguinity and Affinity.—As to the impediments which arise from blood and marriage, the 18th Chapter of the Book of Leviticus is practically the law of Scotland. Marriage is forbidden between ascendants and descendants ad infinitum, and in the collateral line between brothers and sisters, consanguinian or uterine, and between all collaterals, one of whom stands in loco parentis to the other. It is still an academic question whether or not the marriage of a brother and sister both born illegitimate is prohibited.