Article 80, Chapter 3 of the Civil Code of the Philippines

Main Topic:Void and Voidable marriages




INTRODUCTORY COMMENT:

(1) Distinctions Between a Void and a Voidable Marriage

VOID	VOIDABLE
(a) Can never be ratified. (b) always void (c) Can be attacked directly or collaterally. (d) Ther is no conjugal partnership( Only a co-ownership).	(a) Can generally be ratified by free cohabitation. (b) Valid until annulled. (c) Cannot be assailed collaterally; ther must be a direct proceeding. (d) Ther is a conjugal partnership.

       (2) Two Kinds of Impediments in Marriages

          (a) Diriment impediments- They make the marriage VOID.

           Examples:

            1) Close blood relationship

            2)Prior existing marriage

(3) Another Classification of the Impediments

      (a) Absolute - Here the person cannot marry at all.

           Example: When one is below the required age 18.

     (b) Relative - here the prohibition is only with respect to certain persons

           Example:  A brother cannot marry his sister

          

Art. 80. The following marriages shall be void from the beginning:

(1) Those contracted under the ages of sixteen and fourteen years by the male and female respectively, even with the consent of the parents;

(2) Those solemnized by any person not legally authorized to perform marriages;

(3) Those solemnized without a marriage license, save marriages of exceptional character;

(4) Bigamous or polygamous marriages not falling under Article 83, Number 2;

(5) Incestuous marriages mentioned in Article 81;

(6) Those where one or both contracting parties have been found guilty of the killing of the spouse of either of them;

(7) Those between stepbrothers and stepsisters and other marriages specified in Article 82. (n)

Explanation:

•  Incest is sexual intercourse (either with or without the assumption of the marriage relation) between persons within certain degrees of consanguinity.

Incestuous marriages are void. In Illinois marriages are incestuous when contracted between ancestors and descendants of any degree, between aunts and nephews, uncles and nieces and first cousins. The laws of the other states on this subject present some differences but are in the main very similar.18 At Common law marriage between first cousins were permitted, but on the other hand a man was forbidden to marry relations of his deceased wife within the same degrees that he was forbidden to marry his own relatives.