Legitimation

Legitimation, in Law, is the act by which children born Bastards (q.v.) are made lawful children. By the common law of England bastardy is indelible. The maxim is 'Once a bastard, always a bastard.' By the civil and canon law, on the other hand, the subsequent marriage of parents who have children begotten and born out of lawful wedlock legitimates the children. This principle of legitimation by subsequent marriage prevails, with modifications, in the law of France, of Germany, of Holland, and of Scotland. It also prevails in most of the states of the American Union; in some it has been adopted by statute. In the reign of Henry III. the bishops of England sought to introduce the rule of the canon law into the law of England, and petitioned the lords to consent that persons born before wedlock should be legitimate so far as regarded inheritance. The earls and barons returned the famous answer of the Statute of Merton, 1235: 'We will not change the laws of England, which up to now have been used and approved.' The Legitimacy Declaration Act of 1858 provided that any native-born British subject, domiciled in England or Ireland, or claiming any estate in England or Ireland, may apply to the High Court of Justice for a decree declaring that the petitioner is the legitimate child of his parents. In the United States cases have occurred in which bastards were legitimated by special acts of the legislature.—There is another kind of legitimation, known as legitimation by royal letters. This does not confer upon bastards the full rights of lawful children, but only gives up such rights to the property of bastards as the law confers upon the crown.