CHAPTER VII.
Belgium.
Requirements for Marriage.—A man who has not completed his eighteenth year and a woman who has not completed her fifteenth year cannot contract marriage.
Nevertheless, it is within the power of the sovereign to grant a dispensation setting aside this requirement for good and sufficient causes.
There can be no marriage in Belgium without mutual consent. It is forbidden to contract a second marriage before the dissolution of the first.
A son or a daughter who has not reached the age of twenty-one years cannot contract a marriage without the consent of his or her father and mother. In case of disagreement between the father and mother on this subject the consent of the father is sufficient.
A disagreement between a father and a mother as to giving consent to the marriage of their child can be established by a notarial record, by a summons served by a process server, by minutes of a hearing held on the subject, or by a letter stating the mother’s objection to the marriage written by her to a civil officer of the State.
If the father or the mother is dead, if either of them is absent or incapable of expressing consent, the consent of the other parent is sufficient.
The incapacity of a father or a mother to express consent may be proven by a declaration made by the future spouse whose ascendant is incapable and by four witnesses of full age, of either sex.
If the father and the mother are dead, or both are incapable of manifesting their wishes, the grandfathers and the grandmothers take their places.