Denmark.
Justice is administered in Denmark in the first instance by the judges of the hundreds in the rural communities and by the city magistrates in the urban districts. Appeals from such courts lie to the superior courts of Copenhagen and Viborg, and in the last resort to the Supreme Court, which consists of a bench of twenty-four judges, at Copenhagen.
Denmark was one of the first countries in Europe in which the government established any regulation or control over matrimonial affairs.
The body of the law on marriage and divorce is found to-day in the Code of Christian the Fifth (1683), as modified and modernized, and such customs and precedents of the Danish people as the courts accept as binding.
Betrothal.—A betrothal or engagement to marry carries with it no legal obligation. The courts of Denmark do not recognize the breach of a promise to marry as constituting a legal cause of action.
If, however, a woman, on promise of marriage, permits sexual intercourse, she can sue to have the marriage specifically performed, provided the man is at least 25 years of age and the woman herself is of good reputation and neither a widow nor a domestic servant who has become pregnant by her employer or one of his relatives. In addition, the betrothal must either have been public or capable of easy proof.
Qualifications for Marriage.—A male cannot legally conclude marriage before the completion of his twentieth year. A female must have completed her sixteenth year. The King may grant a dispensation permitting parties of less age to marry.
Males and females are minors until the completion of their twenty-fifth year, and during minority cannot conclude marriage without the consent of their parents or guardians. If the necessary consent is withheld without just cause the authorities can furnish the desired permission.
Impediments.—Marriage is prohibited between relatives in the direct line, whether by blood or marriage, and between brothers and sisters of the whole or half blood.
The royal dispensation is required for marriage between a man and his brother’s widow, his aunt, great-aunt or any feminine relative nearer of kin to the common ancestor than the man himself.