However, if the promise has been made in a public or private instrument by a person of age, or by a minor in the presence of the person whose consent is necessary for the celebration of the marriage, or when banns have been published, the person who refuses to marry, without just cause, can be obliged to indemnify the other party for the expenses which he or she may have incurred by reason of the promised marriage.
An action to recover indemnity for such expenses must be instituted within a year, counted from the day of the refusal to celebrate the marriage.
Spanish Precedents.—It should be remembered that in throwing off the yoke of Spanish rule the people of Cuba did not change their blood, language or traditions. Just as the law of the United States of America is founded upon the law of England as it existed at the time of the adoption of the American Constitution, so the jurisprudence of the Republic of Cuba has as its foundation the law of Spain as it existed at the time the Republic was established.
In both instances there have been changes and modifications by legislative acts and judicial interpretations, but a Spanish judicial decision has even more weight in a Cuban tribunal than an English decision has in an American court because Cuba, being a younger Republic than the United States, is much nearer to its motherland in point of time, besides its closer resemblance in race, religion and customs.
CHAPTER XXXI.
Commonwealth of Australia.
The Commonwealth of Australia, created by an act of the Imperial Parliament in 1900 (63 and 64 Vic. cap. 12), is a federal State under the supreme authority of the Crown of Great Britain.
This act of Parliament not only created a federal Commonwealth out of the colonies of Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, West Australia and Tasmania, but it also granted to the new Commonwealth a written constitution which is obviously modeled upon that of the United States of America.