Legitimacy law in England and Wales

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Legitimacy law in England and Wales is governed by the pertinent legislation (Legitimacy Act 1926, Legitimacy Act 1959, Family Law Reform Act 1987) and by case law.

Legitimacy Act 1926

The Legitimacy Act 1926 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The purpose of the Legitimacy Act 1926 was to amend the law relating to children born out of wedlock.

Legitimacy Act 1959

The Legitimacy Act 1959 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It was repealed by the Family Law Reform Act 1987.

Case law is a set of past rulings by tribunals that meet their respective jurisdictions' rules to be cited as precedent. These interpretations are distinguished from statutory law, which are the statutes and codes enacted by legislative bodies, and regulatory law, which are regulations established by executive agencies based on statutes. The term "case law" is applied to any set of previous rulings by an adjudicatory tribunal that guides future rulings; for example, patent office case law.

Contents

Provisions

Section 2 of the Legitimacy Act 1976 provides as follows:

Subject to the following provisions of this Act, where the parents of an illegitimate person marry one another, the marriage shall, if the father of the illegitimate person is at the date of marriage domiciled in England and Wales, render that person, if living, legitimate from the date of the marriage.

Extract from Hershman McFarlane Section A.5

Father

The child's father is in the same position as the mother if he was married to the child's mother at the time of the child's birth, [1] in that he also has parental responsibility for his child.

In the nations of the European Union and in the United Kingdom, parental responsibility refers to the rights and privileges which underpin the relationship between the children and the children's parents and those adults who are granted parental responsibility by either signing a 'parental responsibility agreement' with the mother or getting a 'parental responsibility order' from a court. The terminology for this area of law now includes matters dealt with as contact and residence in some states.

Where the child's parents were not married at the time of the child's birth, the child's father will still have parental responsibility for his child if the child is legitimated by statute. [2] The father will acquire parental responsibility by virtue of the legitimation. FLRA 1987 sets out the circumstances where the child's parents are treated in law as having been married at the time of the child's birth, even though they were not. [3]

Application to the succession to the British throne

While children who are born to parents who are unmarried at the time of birth but subsequently marry are thereby made legitimate, this does not apply to the succession to the British throne. The Legitimacy Act 1926, 10 (1) says, "Nothing in this Act shall affect the Succession to any dignity or title of honour or render any person capable of succeeding to or transmitting a right to succeed to any such dignity or title." The Legitimacy Act 1959, 6 (4) says, "It is hereby declared that nothing in this Act affects the Succession to the Throne."

Succession to the British throne Law governing who can become British monarch

Succession to the British throne is determined by descent, sex, legitimacy, and religion. Under common law, the Crown is inherited by a sovereign's children or by a childless sovereign's nearest collateral line. The Bill of Rights 1689 and the Act of Settlement 1701 restrict succession to the throne to the legitimate Protestant descendants of Sophia of Hanover who are in "communion with the Church of England". Spouses of Roman Catholics were disqualified from 1689 until the law was amended in 2015. Protestant descendants of those excluded for being Roman Catholics are eligible.

Notes

  1. CA 1989, s 2(1).
  2. FLRA 1987, s 1(2).
  3. FLRA 1987, s 1(3); see also [103].

See also

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