What was the age of consent in hawaii in 1961

See also paragraphs 5. Reference has already been made paragraphs 2. The Committee of Ministers suggested that consideration should be given to the position of children who, by reason of the lowering of the age of majority, might be deprived of necessary assistance for pursuing education or training.

The maintenance law in regard to such children is considered in some detail in paragraphs 5. In other statutes, however, there is a specific reference to the age of 21 years.

There is a similar definition in section 3 of the Succession Act Chapter VI hereof contains the General Scheme of a Bill to reform the law relating to the age of majority and to provide for consequential amendments in existing statutory provisions. The Scheme provides specifically for a Schedule of the transitory provisions.

See paragraph 3. A reduction in the age of majority to 18 years raises two questions concerning the law of marriage:. If an individual is to reach full age at 18 years, should parental consent for marriage be nonetheless required beyond this age? In this chapter the following meanings are given to certain terms. The law governing marriage in Ireland was based on the common law as amended by statute. An individual was regarded as having reached marriageable age at 14 years, if a male, and 12 years, if a female.

However, he or she did not reach full age until A marriage when the bridegroom had attained 14 years and the bride had attained 12 years was binding on both parties. Parental consent to the marriage of a minor was not a legal requirement. The English and the Irish law diverged in when the Act for better preventing the Clandestine Marriages was passed.

It required the consent of the parent or guardian if an intended spouse was under 21 years of age. During the 19th century in Ireland Catholic marriages were left to the operation of the common law. They might be celebrated privately or publicly, at any time or place, and in any form or manner the celebrating priest thought proper, without banns, licence, notice, residence or consent. See W.

Canon Law imposed certain conditions precedent to the validity of a marriage. Faloon op. Joyce, Christian Marriage , p. London In general, these statutes dealt with the formalities attending the solemnisation of a marriage. The Marriage Law I Act dealt with the marriages of persons belonging to the Church of Ireland, to the Presbyterian, Quaker, other dissenting Protestant religions, and to the Jewish religion. By reason of sections 3, 19 and 20 of this Act, in the case of a marriage other than a marriage of Catholics , if any spouse had not attained the age of 21 years, the consent of that spouse's parent or guardian was to be obtained.

If, for any reason, the person who was to give the consent was unavailable, or unwilling to do so, an application could be made to the Lord Chancellor, or to Master of the Rolls, for such consent. The requirement of consent appears to have been directory and not mandatory, so that a marriage contracted without the required consent was not invalid.

The marriage laws at the establishment of the Irish Free State in and for the next fifty years may be summarised as follows:. For members of the Church of Ireland, Presbyterians, Quakers, members of other dissenting Protestant religions and members of the Jewish faith, the law of marriage was governed by the common law as amended by the statutes referred to in paragraphs 4.

In the case of a person under 21 years the consent of the minor's parent or guardian was required for the issue of the licence. If such consent was refused or could not be obtained, either the Lord Chancellor or the Master of the Rolls could give the consent. As regards Catholics the marriage law was the common law, which required no licences, banns, or consent. Under Canon Law a Catholic clergyman was required to solemnise the marriage.

Even though the marriage might not comply with Canon Law it was valid if it complied with the common law. Under the common law the minimum age for marriage, irrespective of religious belief, was 14 years for a male and 12 years for a female, i. By there was an increasing volume of opinion in favour of raising the minimum age for marriage.

An example of this was the resolution passed by the General Synod of the Church of Ireland that representations should be made to the appropriate Minister with a view to having the minimum age for marriage raised to 16 years. The United Nations Organisation was particularly concerned about the minimum age for marriage. In by the Convention on Consent to Marriage, Minimum Age for Marriage, and Registration of Marriage the United Nations agreed that States who are parties to the Convention should take legislative action to specify a minimum age for marriage.

Ireland has not yet acceded to this Convention. By General Assembly Resolution XX the General Assembly of the United Nations recommended that, where not already provided by existing legislative or other measures, each Member State should take the necessary steps to adopt such legislative or other measures as might be appropriate to give effect to the following principle:. Principle II. In this Report it was suggested that the existing marriage legislation might be thought to be discriminatory against some religions and offend against Article See Report of the Committee on the Constitution , pp.

The Bill was introduced as an interim measure and was not designed to establish a comprehensive new marriage code. Its aim was to make certain desirable and rather urgent changes of a limited character. See S. The minimum age for marriage is 16 years, with a provision enabling the President of the High Court to grant an exemption for a person who has not attained that age section 1 ;.

Sections 19 and 20 of the Marriages I Act are replaced by a new section The substituted section applies to all marriages. See section 7 of the Act. In the case of the marriage of a person under 21 years who is neither a widow, widower nor ward of court, the consent of that person's guardian to the marriage is required. If there are no guardians, or if the guardians cannot, without unreasonable difficulty, be found or refuse or withhold their consent, the President of the High Court or a judge of the High Court nominated by him may consent.

This is the first time that the law has required the consent of a guardian to the marriage of a Catholic minor. It should be noted that the new section does not render invalid a marriage contracted without the required consent. No regulations have so far been made. The intention at the time of the introduction of the Bill of the Act was that, if the voting age was reduced from 21 to 18 years, a corresponding reduction would be made in the age below which parental consent is required for marriage.

The Minister for Health put down two amendments to the Bill:. After hearing the arguments advanced by several Senators the Minister withdrew the two amendments, thus leaving section 18 stand part of the Bill. See Seanad Debates, 13 December, , Vol.

According to the Minister for Health, the intention of the Act was that, once the statutory provisions as laid down in the Act had been complied with, the various religious bodies would be entitled to impose their own discipline on the marriage ceremony. The State would not interfere with the regulations of a religious body so long as the law of the land was not contravened.

A Church authority could exercise its discretion and apply its own rules to its members. Seanad Debates, December 13, , Vol. Section 1 of the Marriages Act fixes the minimum age for marriage at 16 years. It also provides machinery whereby an exemption order may be obtained. The application for an exemption order must be made through the Registrar of Wards of Court in accordance with an informal procedure.

The application may be made by either party to the proposed marriage without the intervention of a next friend. The application must be heard in private. Before granting an exemption the applicant must show that it is justified by serious reasons and is in the interest of the parties to the proposed marriage.

Applications are made informally through the Registrar in accordance with rules of procedure directed by the President of the High Court. The application is made by letter or personally.

The Registrar sends the applicant a simple form, which is designed to ascertain relevant information such as the age of the applicant, the name and address of the intended spouse and the names and addresses of both parties' parents or guardians etc. Copies of birth, or baptismal, certificates are also required. An appointment is made for the parties, and their parents, to meet the President of the High Court.

The President has separate interviews with the parties to the intended marriage and with the parents or guardians. If the parties are willing, a report may be sought from any clergyman or social worker who is interested in the application. After these interviews, the application is normally adjourned to allow time for consideration of the information available and of any other information that may have been sought.

The Act does not mention the possibility of an appeal, but it would appear to be accepted that there is a right of appeal to the Supreme Court. In there were 9 applications for exemption orders of which 3 were granted, 3 were refused, and 3 were withdrawn. In there were 10 applications for exemption orders of which 5 were granted, 4 were refused and 1 was withdrawn.

Since the Marriages Act came into full force on January 1, , the free age for marriage in Ireland has been 21 years. A person who has attained that age does not require the consent of his or her guardians. Consent is not required in the case of a person who is under 21 years and who is a widow or widower. A minor who is a ward of court requires the consent of the court in order to get married.

In the case of persons requiring the consent of their guardians to marry, if there is no guardian or if the guardian cannot be found or refuses consent to the proposed marriage, an application may be made to the President of the High Court or to a High Court Judge nominated by him.

See section 7 of the Marriages Act The application is made informally and the procedure is substantially the same as the procedure for an exemption order outlined in paragraphs 4. In twenty-seven applications for the Court's consent to marriage were made to the President of the High Court because there was no guardian for one of the parties to the proposed marriage, or because a guardian could not be found. All these were unopposed and all were granted.

The number of applications which were due to the opposition of one or both of the parents or guardians is given in the following table. Of the 22 applications in , 1 was from a 16 year old, 5 were by 17 year olds, 5 were by 18 year olds, 7 were by 19 year olds and 4 by 20 year olds. Of the 20 applications in , 6 were by 18 year olds, 11 were by 19 year olds and 3 by 20 year olds.

The common law age for marriage in England and Scotland was 14 years for a male and 12 years for a female. These were the old Canon Law ages. As was mentioned in paragraph 4.

This is the statute which introduced into England the need for the consent of the parent or guardian to a marriage where either of the spouses was under The Act applied only to England and Wales.

The minimum age at which a marriage could be contracted was fixed at 16 years for England and Scotland by the Age of Marriage Act There is no provision for any exemption for a person under 16 years in either of these statutes.

The Latey Committee considered whether the minimum age for marriage i. The unanimous recommendation of the Committee was against any alteration in the age. Latey Report , paragraph The free age for marriage was also considered by the Latey Committee.

The majority of the Committee recommended that the free age for marriage should be the same as the age of majority which they had recommended, that is 18 years. Latey Report , paragraphs to This latter recommendation was accepted and was implemented in the Family Law Reform Act , which applies to England and Wales. An attempt was made during the passage of the legislation in the British House of Lords to raise the free age for marriage to 20 years.

In Scotland the consent of a parent or guardian is not required for the marriage of a person who has reached the minimum age for marriage i. Appendix C to this paper gives the age of majority, the minimum age for marriage and the free age for marriage in a number of legal systems. It will be noted that normally the age of majority is the same as the free age for marriage. In the last decade the age of majority was reduced from 21 to either 18, 19, or 20 in the following countries: Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and Turkey.

In each country the free age for marriage was also reduced to correspond with the age of majority. Each provincial legislature in Canada has reduced the age of majority from 21 to either 18 or 19 years. In every case when the age of majority was reduced a corresponding reduction was made in the free age for marriage. In the various States of the U. In some States, however, a female may reach the free age for marriage at an earlier age than a male. For example, in Colorado, Delaware, Indiana, Iowa, Mississippi, Missouri and Texas, parental consent is not required in the case of a man who is 21 or a woman who is In Stanton v.

Stanton already referred to in paragraph 2. This decision was made in the context of child support. Nevertheless, the decision raises doubts as to the constitutionality of a statute which provides a different free age for marriage for a man and for a woman. See also Craig v. Boren , 97 Sup.

Formerly, the minimum age for marriage throughout Australia was determined by the common law. The first change was in , when Tasmania raised the minimum age for marriage to 18 years for males and 16 years for females. Other States followed suit. This Act fixes the minimum age for marriage 'the marriageable age' at 18 years for a male and 16 years for a female section However, a male who has attained the age of 16 years or a female who has attained the age of 14 years may apply to the court for permission to marry a person of marriageable age.

The court must hold an inquiry into all relevant circumstances. If the court is satisfied that the circumstances of the case are so exceptional and unusual as to justify the making of an order, it may grant the application. Otherwise the court must refuse the application. See the Marriage Act , section If this consent is refused, or if it is not practicable to obtain the consent from the person who should give it, the court in a proper case may grant the consent, or dispense with the obtaining of it.

As has been stated in paragraph 2. The free age for marriage is 21 years in Victoria whereas it is only 18 years in the other States. As has been indicated in para. Prior to the law did not require a record of the ages of the contracting parties to be made in the marriage register. Therefore, before detailed records of the ages of persons at the date of their marriage are not available. Extracts from the Reports on Vital Statistics for the years , , , and are given infra in Appendix D, Table 2 pp.

The years , , and were chosen as they were years in which a Census was taken. These extracts show the number of marriages according to age groups in the years to which the Census returns refer. If the age of majority is reduced from 21 years, it will be necessary to decide whether the free age for marriage should be reduced from 21 years to the new age of majority. This table, which is an extract from a more comprehensive Table 2 in Appendix D, gives an idea of the number of persons who would be affected if the age of majority is reduced, and no amendment is made to section 19 of the Marriages I Act as substituted therein by section 7 of the Marriages Act It is apparent from Appendix D Tables 1 to 3 that the pattern of marriages in Ireland has been that:.

It has been argued that there is a correlation between very young marriages and marital breakdown. The statistics in other countries suggest this. As regards Ireland, there is a dearth of reliable information as to the relationship between the ages of the spouses at the date of the marriage and the subsequent breakdown of the marriage or as to the incidence of the breakdown of marriages. See Appendix D for a study. In most European States the age of majority is the same as the free age for marriage.

See Appendix C, column 5, p. When no question of principle is involved, uniformity with other legal systems, particularly those of the EEC, is desirable. If it is correct to reduce the age of majority there seems to the Commission to be no reason why a similar reduction should not be made in the free age for marriage. A person who is fit to manage his own affairs and who is fit to serve on a jury, to make a will and to vote should, in the Commission's view, be responsible enough to enter into a marriage contract without requiring the consent of any person or tribunal.

Accordingly, the Commission recommends that, if there is to be a free age for marriage in addition to a minimum age for marriage, it should be the same as the age of majority. If, as the Commission proposes paragraphs 2. The suggestion has been made that the minimum age for marriage should be raised to 18 years. This is the age which the Commission suggests as the age of majority. As from January 1, , the minimum age for marriage for a male or a female is 16 years unless the President of the High Court or a High Court judge nominated by him grants an exemption for a marriage at a lower age Marriages Act , section 1.

The question of the minimum age for marriage is dealt with more fully by Dr H. This study suggests that in Ireland, as in other Western countries, there is a correlation between very young marriages i. See also paragraph 4. The present opinion of the Commission is that the minimum age for marriage should be the same as the age of majority. The Commission would welcome comments on this opinion. The Commission has considered the question as to whether there should be a provision enabling the authorisation of the marriage of a person who has not attained the age of majority.

The Commission's present view as expressed in the General Scheme is that a marriage between persons one of whom is under the age of 16 should be made null and void and that there should be no jurisdiction to grant exemptions 1. This is the position in Northern Ireland.

However, in the recent submission by the Standing Committee of the General Synod of the Church of Ireland referred to in paragraph 2. A marriage where one of the parties has reached the age of 16 but not the age of 18 should, in the opinion of the Commission, be null and void, unless it is solemnised with the prior written consent of the parents or guardians of that party, or with the consent of some other appropriate authority where there are no parents or guardians or where one or both of the parents or guardians refuse or withhold consent.

Furthermore, any requirement in the proposed legislation making parental consent obligatory for the marriage of a minor should, as the Commission sees things, be clearly made a matter of capacity to marry.

Moreover, the requirement should in terms be mandatory and not as appears to be the position under existing law directory. A marriage where one of the parties is under the minimum age for marriage is intrinsically or essentially invalid and, in the Commission's view, the same should be the position in regard to a marriage that is null and void because of lack of parental or other necessary consent.

The issue as to whether a marriage is formally valid or is essentially valid is important in the context of the conflict of laws. In the European systems of law, matters concerned with formal validity of marriage are determined by the lex loci celebrationis in accordance with the rule locus regit actum , whereas the substantive requirements of marriage are for the personal law of the parties, i. It is proposed to replace sections 1 and 7 of the Marriages Act by two entirely new provisions sections 7 and 8 of the General Scheme of the Bill in Chapter VII infra that will, inter alia , characterise age and consent requirements as matters of essential or intrinsic validity.

The effect of a reduction in the age of majority on the maintenance, education and training of persons who have not reached 21 years. This is subdivided into the following:. The difference between construction of expressions "full age" etc. In Ireland and England the common law rule is that a person attains a particular age at the first moment of the day preceding the relevant anniversary of his birth. Thus if a person was born on January 14, , he would have become 21 at the first moment of January 13, The rule could, of course, be varied by a statute declaring the date at which a particular age would be reached.

The Latey Committee in Britain considered the question of when a particular age is reached. In its Report the Committee expressed the opinion that the difference between the date on which a certain age is reached at common law and the date specified in some statutes was confusing, as well as being pointless. Reference was made to certain English statutory provisions such as the Mental Health Act , section 5 and the National Insurance Act , section 4 c , where a person attains for the purposes of those Acts a specified age at the commencement of the appropriate anniversary of the date of his birth.

The Committee unanimously recommended that the moment of attaining an age in law should be the commencement of the relevant anniversary of the day of a person's birth.

There is no similar provision in the legislation for Scotland, where the rule is that a person attains majority on the eighteenth anniversary of his birth, at the hour of his birth. In many other countries where the age of majority has been altered in recent years the legislature has included a section fixing the time when a particular age is reached.

The Commission is of opinion that any statute altering the age of majority should contain a section on the lines of one of the sections referred to in paragraphs 5.

The Explanatory Memorandum which accompanied this resolution referred to the problems arising from the increasing number of young people who were pursuing education or training after compulsory schooling. Such young people would still need financial support. If a reduction in the age of majority resulted in a substantial reduction in the rights of children deriving from a parent's maintenance obligation, the continuation of their education and training could be in jeopardy.

This could arise where the obligation of parents to meet a child's financial needs was partially linked with parental authority in such a way that, when such authority was extinguished on the attainment of majority, the obligation was abolished or considerably reduced. Parents who were relieved of their legal obligations might be less willing to continue to look after their children once the children reached the age of majority.

The Memorandum explained that Clause 3 of the Resolution was aimed at safeguarding the benefits of financial assistance to young people beyond the age of majority to the extent that such assistance was essential for the purpose of education or training. At a trial by jury the appellant sought to raise the defense of reasonable mistake of fact as to the age of the female as a question for the jury to consider.

The trial court refused to give an instruction on this issue. On appeal, appellant strongly urges upon this court that the better rule of law is to allow a defense of a mistake of fact concerning the age of the prosecutrix. In support of this position appellant cites the case of People v. Hernandez, 61 Cal. In Hernandez the California Supreme Court, overruling its former decisions, held that a reasonable belief that the victim was over the age of consent was a defense in a prosecution for statutory rape.

Since the Hernandez decision it appears that no other jurisdiction has made a judicial departure from the prevailing view that in a case involving statutory rape it is the doing of the act that is criminal and not the bad intent of the perpetrator.

Several jurisdictions have, subsequent to the decision in Hernandez, specifically rejected the rationale of the California court. These decisions adhere to the rule that when statutory rape is charged, the defendant's reasonable belief as to the knowledge of the girl's age is immaterial.

State v. Superior Court of Pima County, Ariz. Moore, N. Fulks, 83 S. We disagree with appellant that this rationale should be overturned. Our reasons are well stated in Territory v. Delos Santos, 42 Haw. The defendant contends that the "English courts have recognized mistake of fact as a defense in criminal prosecutions since Levitt's Case, reported in Cook's Case, Cro. I do not have any quarrel with the statement and principle stated above. However, is the principle applicable here?

In a hypothetical case where A and B go on a hunting expedition and A shoots and kills B, and A is charged with premeditated homicide or murder, A's defense that he shot a moving object behind some shrubbery thinking it to be a wild pig, which in fact was B, would be valid.

Under our statute, it is a criminal offense for a man to have sexual intercourse with a female not his wife. The age of the consenting female only determined the gravity of the offense. Here the mistake as to the age of the female is analogous to the mistaken opinion as to the value of the ring in the hypothetical larceny case.

Under the status of our law on sex offenses, I am compelled to agree that mistake of fact as to age of the consenting female is not a valid defense and, therefore, I concur with the majority of this court in affirming the judgment of the trial court.

This court, in Territory v. Ratz, Cal. Because I believe that the use of Delos Santos as a barrier to the result dictated by People v. My dissent, however, like the departure in Hernandez from the views expressed in Ratz "is in no manner indicative of a [disagreement with] the sound policy that it is in the public interest to protect the sexually naive female from exploitation.

The common law "principle that it is not conduct alone but conduct accompanied by certain specific mental states which concerns, or should concern the law" is, to say the least, "primordial. A mistaken belief in facts which if they did exist would render an act innocent, negates the requisite mens rea the state of mind required to establish an element of the offense and constitutes a defense in criminal prosecutions.

This court has recognized the "rule allowing a defense to a crime considered malum in se because of a mistake of fact Dizon, 47 Haw. Scully, 22 Haw.

Given that the rationale for the age of consent has remained essentially unchanged in its emphasis on the need to protect 'immature' children, the table highlights the shifting and various definitions of childhood employed across time and cultures.

Date compiled from the following sources: Hirschfeld, Magnus. The Homosexuality of Men and Women. Sign up for our newsletter and get the latest information on our programs and events. With your help SATC is able to provide the needed services for victims and educators through your generous donations.