Annulment.—Marriage may be annulled if contracted in contravention of the impediments as to age, existing previous marriage, relationship or homicide. It may also be declared null if it was celebrated before an incompetent official or without the necessary witnesses; in the former case, however, the action cannot be instituted more than a year after the date of celebration. Actions on the foregoing grounds may be brought by the parties themselves, by the nearest ascendants, by the public prosecutor or by any one who has a legitimate or actual interest in the marriage.
The validity of a marriage may also be attacked by the party whose consent thereto was not free or who was under error as to the person married; but actions on these grounds are no longer admissible when cohabitation has lasted for a month after the removal of the constraint or the discovery of the error. Impotence, when anterior to marriage, may be put forward as a ground for annulment by either party. Marriage performed without the required legal consent may be attacked by the person whose consent was necessary or by the party to whom it was necessary; but in the former case it cannot be attacked later than six months after marriage, and in the latter, six months after the party in question has attained his majority. Moreover, in cases where only one of the parties has attained the required age it cannot be attacked when the wife, although not yet of age, has become pregnant. The marriage of one who has been legally adjudged of unsound mind can be attacked either by the party himself, his guardian, the family council, or the public prosecutor, if the judgment had already been passed when the marriage was celebrated, or if the infirmity for which the judgment was pronounced was existent at the time of marriage.
Marriage cannot, however, be attacked on this ground if cohabitation has endured for three months after the party has been legally adjudged to be once more of sound mind.
The public prosecutor is obliged to intervene in all matrimonial causes, even if they were not instituted by him.
Separation.—There is no divorce in Italy, and marriage is only dissolved by the death of one of the parties. Personal separation is, however, permitted on the following grounds:
1. Adultery of the wife, or of the husband if he maintains a concubine in his house or openly in another place or when such circumstances concur that the act constitutes a grave indignity (ingiuria grave) to the wife. The latter provision is intended to apply particularly to cases where the wife has discovered the husband in flagrante delicto.
2. Voluntary abandonment.
3. Violence endangering the life or health, cruelty, threats, or grave mental indignities.
4. Sentence to punishment for crime, except when the conviction was prior to the marriage and the other party was cognizant of it.
5. The wife can ask for a separation when the husband, without any just reason, does not set up an abode, or, having the means, refuses to set one up in a manner suited to his condition.