Marriage, Matrimonial Causes, Legitimacy and Adoption: Miscellaneous Notes On Recent Australian Statutes

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Marriage, Matrimonial Causes, Legitimacy and


Adoption:
Miscellaneous Notes on Recent Australian Statutes
By PROFESSOR ZELMAN COWEN,

DEAN OF THE FACULTY OF LAW, UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE.

During the 1000s, some important statutes which bear on- matters
of personal law, and notably on marriage, mabimonial causes,
legitimacy and adoption have come into operation in Australia. The
Mabimonial Causes Act 1959 came into operation early in 1961 and is
a comprehensive exercise of Cornmonwealth legislative power
primarily dep'endent upon section 51 (xxii) of the Constitution of
the Commonwealth power to make laws with respect to divorce, and
matrimonial causes. It is an elaborate and complex statute and its
constitutional base is, of course, broader than, that single paragraph.[l]
It was a response to a question asked by one of the Founding Fathers
in 1897 "What subject is more fitted for generallegislation?"12] though
the answer was not given in temls of comprehensive Commonwealth
law for sixty years. The Marriage Act 1961 was a further comprehen-
sive exercise of Commonwealth legislative power, this time principally
based on the power conferred on the Commonwealth by section
51 ( xxi) of the Constitution to legislate with resp'ect to marriage. In
Part 6 of that Act, provision was made for legitimation by subsequent
marriage, the recognition of foreign legitimations, and for the
legitimacy of the issue of a putative marriage. This raised important
and difficult constitutional questions in the High Court of Australia
which will be considered later.£3l Then in 1964, the Victorian Par-
liament enacted the Adoption of Children Act which is a compre-
hensive Act and, inter alia, fonnulates rules for the assumption of
jurisdiction by a Victorian court to make adoption orders and for the
recognition of foreign adoption orders. Adoption is a matter regulated
by State law, and the enactment of the Victorian Act followed con-
ferences attended by the 'law officers of the Commonwealth and the
States for the purpose of 'reaching agreement on unifonn legislation.
In this article it is proposed to consider some aspects of these three
Acts and their interpretation.

1 See Cowen and Mendes da Costa, Matrimonial Causes Jurisdiction (1961), at


p.4.
2 Ibid, at p. 1.
3 Attorney-General for Victoria v. Commonwealth (1962), 107 C.L.R. 529;
[1962] A.L.R. 673.
24 AUSTRALIAN INTERNATIONAL LAW 1965

Matrimonial Causes Act 1959


The Matrimonial Causes Act (followed by the Marriage Act) broke
new ground by constituting an Australian domicile. Hitherto domicile
was detennined by reference to a State or Territory and a domicile
within a wider Australian area was unknown. In the context of
matrimonial causes it had been urged by the Full Supreme C'ourt of
Victoria in Armstead v. A!mstead[4 1 and by tlle Supreme Court of the
Northern Territory in Fullerton v. Fullerton[51 that the time was ripe
for regarding .Australia as one country for the purposes of domicile.
Kriewaldt, J., said that it was easy to conceive of a person having
become a Dlember of the Australian community without having
identified himself with anyone State or Territory. The draftsman of
the Matrimonial. Causes Act 1959 did not expressly say that there
should be an Australian domicile; he provided in section 23, where
domicile was the designated basis for jurisdiction, that proceedings
should not be instituted except by a person domiciled in Austraha;
and in section 24 he spelled out particular cases in which a person
('shall be deemed to be domiciled in Allstralia". As Barry, J., said in
Lloyd v. Lloyd[6 1 : "Although that Act does not in teffils state that
there is an Australian domicile, the existence of an Australian domicile
is assumed, and it is implicit in the provisions of Part 5 of the Act that
a domicile in Australia is a juristically acceptable concept". There
can be no doubt of the constitutional power of the Commonwealth
Parliament to provide for a jurisdictional basis, being an Australian
domicile, in matrimonial causes, and likewise no doubt of constitu-
tional po\ver to provide for an Australian domicile, where relevant, in
a law with respect to marriage. But. the Acts are silent on matters
essential to the definition of domicile in Australia: in particular on
the question whether such a domicile can only be acquired by way
of a dOlnicile established in a State or Territory, or whether it may
be acquired, as Kriewaldt, J., suggested, without such a requirement.
This problem, as Barry, J., observed in Lloyd v. Lloyd, is not likely
to arise often, but it is not difficult to envisage cases where it may
arise in a country of migration. A migrant may have an animus
manendi directed to Australia at large without necessarily having such
an animus directed to a particular State or Territory. Barry, J., ex·
pressed the view that in such a case it was proper to hold that he had
acquired an Australian domicile.[71
I have argued elsewhere that this view should be accepted, and
that for the purposes of the Matrimonial Causes Act and Marriage
Act a domicile in Australia may be established by satisfying the
common law requirements of animus and factum within the general

4 [1954] V.L.R. 733, at p. 736.


5 (1958), 2 F.L.R. 391, at p. 399.
6 (1961), 2 F.L.R. 349, at p. 350; [1962] A.L.R. at p. 279.
7 Lloyd v. Lloyd (1961), 2 F.L.R. at p. 351; [1962] A.L.R. at pp. 280-1.
MARRIAGE, LEGITIMACY AND ADOPTION 25

geographical area of Australia as defined in the Acts. [8] This may mean
that a person will be held to be domiciled in Australia for the purpose
of those Acts, while he may still retain an English dOlnicile of origin
for purposes of succession to movable property. If this is so it will be
necessary to modify the time-hallowed rule that no person can at the
same time have more than' one domicile. [9] That results in this case
from the fact tllat the statute speaks peremptorily to an Australian
court. For an English court not subject to such a peremptory obliga-
tion, a question of modification of the one domicile rule may also
arise. in the context of recognition of an Australian decree. If a
migrant with an English domicile of origin is granted a divorce by
an Australian court on the footing that he has acquired an Australian
domicile, although he has not established a domicile in a State or
Territory, will such a decree be recognized in England? It is possible
to argue that an English, court is not bound to accept the new statutory
creature, domicile in Australia, and may take the view that the failure
to show a domicile in an established common law sense in a State
leads to the conclusion that at all material times the petitioner retained
his domicile of origin in England. Thi'i question has not yet been
answered. It is submitted that the better view is that an English court
should recognize the Australian decree in such a case. The reason
may be stated in these terms:
"The citizen of a federation is subje.ct to two legal systems, State and
federal, in both of which domicile may be relevant. And within
Australia, as Barry, J., said in Lloyd v. Lloyd, there is unity of law
with respect to matrimonial causes throughout the country. This
follows from the distribution of legislative power by the constitution
and from the exercise of that constitutional power. The legislative
framework within which this unity of law is established contemplates
Australia as a single law district within which a domicile by reference
to the common law concepts of animus and factum may be established:
why, having regard to these considerations, should an English court
insist that the only domicile which can be established at common law
in Australia is one established in a State or Territory? Is there not more
practical good sense, more adequate appreciation of the character and
organization of a federal structure, in accepting the notion of an
Australian domicile in such a case?"[10]
If this were accepted by an English court, it would follow that a
court not constrained so to do by authority of statute, would accept
a view of the law at variance with the classical rule of the singleness
of domicile, because the petitioner in such a case would be held to
be domiciled in Australia for purposes of divorce jurisdiction, and
domiciled in England for purposes of succession to movable
property. [11]
8 Cowen and Mendes da Costa, "The Unity of Domicile" (1962) 78 L.Q.R. 62;
Cowen and Mendes da Costa, "Matrimonial Causes Jurisdiction: The First
Year" (1962) 36 A.L.J. 31, at pp. 34-6.
9 Rule 4, Dicey, Conflict of Laws (7th ed., 1958), at p. 89.
10 Cowen and Mendes da Costa, "The Unity of Domicile" (1962) 78L.Q.R. 62,
at p. 68.
11 Cowen and Mendes da Costa, "Matrimonial Causes Jurisdiction: The First
Year" (1962) 36 A.L.J. at p. 35.
26 AUSTRALIAN INTERNATIONAL LAW 1965

The Matrimonial Causes Act makes provision for a domicile in


Australia without defining it; it does not essay any definition of a
marriage in respect of which the relief furnished by the Act is avail-
able. This was highlighted by the case of Khan v. Khan[12] where a
wllepetitioned for a decree of dissolution of her marriage on the
ground of adultery, for custody of the children, and for maintenance.
The wife was domiciled in Australia at all times until she went to
Pakistan in 1955 to marry 'the respondent. The marriage was in Moslem
form and was potentially polygamous. Thereafter the parties returned
to Australia and at the time of the proceedings the respondent was
an Australian domiciliary and citizen. Gowans, J., in the Supreme
Court of Victoria held that that was not a marriage to which the Act
applied. He based this conclusion on a line of authority starting
with Hyde v. Hyde[13] where it was held that matrimonial relief was
not available in the case of a potentially polygamous marriage. Though
the courts have progressively aff~rded wider recognition to polygamous
marriages, it was said in Baindail v. Baindail, [14] in a case in which
the Court of Appeal recognized a polygamous marriage as a bar to
a subsequent monogamous marriage in England, that "'the powers
conferred on the courts for enforcing or dissolving a marriage tie are
not adapted to any form of union between a man and a woman save
a monogamous union". Recently, in Sowa v. Sowa[15] the Court of
Appeal affirmed this rule in the case of a potentially polygamous
marriage and almost contemptuously rejected the argument that for
the purpose of matrimonial relief, a distinction should be drawn
between a marriage monogamous in fact though potentially
polygamous by the lex loci celebrationis, and a marriag.e which was
actually polygamous. In view of this, Gowans, J., held that he was
constrained to hold that a marriage to which the Act applied was a
monogamous marriage and that there was no jurisdiction to grant
matrimonial relief in the case of a potentially polygamous union. It
would have been difficult for a single judge of a State Supreme CIOurt
to depart· from authority so consistent .and so recent, and this may
well have been a case in which the procedure provided for in section
91 of the Act could have been usefully employed. That allows for a
case to be stated for the opinion of _the Full High Co'urt on a point
of law in proceedings under the Act if the Judge and at least one of
the parties so wish. The Full High Court may have been less oppressed
by this unconvincing, though long established line of authority. But
such a procedure, though very practical and useful, adds to costs
which, it is understood, daunted the petitioner in Khan v. Khan.
In the outcome Mrs. Khan was denied all the matrimonial relief
she sought. This result, it is submitted, is very unsatisfactory and
works intolerable hardship. In some.cases hardship, may be ameliorated

12 [1965] V.R. 203.


13 (1866), L.R~ 1 P. & D. ~ 130.
14 [1946] P. 122, at p. 123.
15 [1961] P. 70.
MARRIAGE, LEGITIMACY AND ADOPTION 27

by such decisions as in Cheni v. Cheni[16] where it was held that a


marriage potentially polygamous by the lex loci celebrationis at the
date of celebration may be regarded as a monogam.ous marriage for
the purpose of granting matrimonial relief if there is a subsequent
change in the lex loci converting the marriage into a monogamous
union. But that is a rare case, though it reflects a desire to escape
from an unhappy rule, and it would not help Mrs. Khan. The general
rule, as applied to a potentially polygamous marriage, works grave
hardship and, notwithstanding what was said in Sowa v. Sowa, has
no sound base in principle. The problem should be tackled legislatively
and it is submitted that this could most conveniently be done by insert-
ing in the definition section of the Matrimonial C:auses Act a state-
Inent that a marriage includes a potentially polygamous marriage,
suitably defined. [17]
Khan v. Khan was cited and applied in another and, in the result,
more beneficial context in Luder v. Luder.[18] There the question was
whether the matrimonial relief furnished by the Act was available in
the case of a proxy marriage entered into in Holland, in 1951, when
the husband was domiciled in Victoria. loske, J., said: "The matri-
monial causes legislation of the States providing for the dissolution
of a marriage has, as already mentioned, been interpreted as includ-
ing in the term 'marriage', a pro~y marriage which was valid in form
in the place of celebration. In my opinion the meaning to be given
to the 'marriage' which may be dissolved under the Commonwealth
Matrimonial Causes Act is the meaning given to it by prior decisions
under corresponding legislation: cf. Khan v. Khan ... Accordingly, I
am satisfied that a proxy marriage lawfully celebrated abroad may be
recognized as a valid marriage for the purposes of the Commonwealth
Matrimonial Causes Act".
The form of section 95 of the Matrimonial Causes Act, dealing with
recognition of foreign decrees, shows that the draftsman had given
careful attention to the existing state of the common law of recog-
nition, and particularly to the problems posed by the conflict between
the decision of the C'ourt of Appeal in Travers v. Holley[l9l and of the
Victorian Full Supreme Court in Fenton v. Fenton.[20] The philosophy
of recognition to which section 95 gives substantial expression is that
recognition should b,e afforded to foreign dissolutions or annulments
effected on jurisdictional bases which parallel the bases on which
Australian courts would assume jurisdiction. The cases calling for
interpretation of section 95 (2) and (3) have not given rise to much
difficulty. The draftsman in section 95 (5) further safeguarded him-
self by providing that any dissolution or annulment of a marriage

16 [1963] 2 W.L.R. 17. See also Sara v. Sara (1962),31 D.L.R. (2d) 566.
17 See Cowen, "A note on Potentially Polygamous Marriages" (1963) 12 I.C.L.Q.
1407, at p. 141l.
18 (1963), 4 F.L.R. 292 at p. 295; [1964] A.L.R. 3, at p. 5.
19 [1953] P. 246.
20 [1957] V.R. 17.
28 AUSTRALIAN INTE,RNATIONAL LAW 1965

that would be recognized as valid under the common law rules of


private international law but to which none of the preceding pro..
visions of the section apply, shall be recognized as valid in Australia.
The operation of this subsection is speculative[21] and it ,vas briefly
considered by the Full Supreme Court of New South Wales in Sheldon
t'. Douglas [22] where the Court, rightly it is submitted, held on the
facts of that case that it was of no possible assistance to the respondent.
Section 95 (7) provides that a dissolution or annulment should not be
valid where, under the common law rules of private international
law, recognition of its validity would be refused on the ground that
a party to the marriage had been denied- natural justice. The words
"natural justice" preserve a common law rule of imprecise expression
and uncertain scope.[23] At common law it has been held ~at want
of notice to a respondent in divorce proceedings may constitute a
denial of natural justice,[24] and in Brown v. Brown[25] Selby, J., in
the Supreme Court of New South Wales considered whether recog-
nition should be denied to a Mexican divorce on the ground that the
respondent wife had no notice of the proceedings although notice was
given by advertisement in an official gazette in accordance with local
Mexican law. The judge found that no fraud was practised on the
Mexican court and that notice was given in accordance with the
requirements of Mexican law. He said that the Court shoul9. not
minutely scrutinize the fairness of the Mexican court's rules of notice
and procedure, and the decree was held not to deny natural justice
within section. 95 (7). This approach suggests, arid rightly, tllat the
subsection will be applied sparingly.
Marriage Act 1961
The Marriage Act in Part 6 makes provision for legitimation by sub-
sequent marriage and for the legitimacy of children of certain void
marriages. Prior to the enactment of these provisions, the only pro-
vision of Commonwealth law touching legitimacy was section 51 of
the Matrimonial Causes Act 1959. Section 51 (1) prOvided that a
decree of nullity of a voidable marriage under the Act annulled a
marriage from the date of decree absolute, and section 51 (2) declared
that a decree of nullity of a voidable marriage under the Act did not
render illegitimate a child of the parties born since or legitimated
during the marriage. In view of the terms of section 51 (1), subsection
( 2) appears to have been inserted ex abundanti cautela. But apart
from this specific case, the legal rules relating to legitimacy and
legitimation were the creatures of State law, and State provisions
relating to legitimation were diverse.

21 See Cowen and Mendes da Costa, Matrimonial Causes Jurisdiction, at pp. 93-7.
22 (1962), 4 F.L.R. 104, at p. 110; [1963]· A.L.R. 197, at p. 202.
23 Cowen and Mendes da Costa, Matrimonial Causes Jurisdiction, at p. f11.
24 Ibid at pp. 98-9.
25 (1962), 4 F.L.R. 94; [1963] A.L.R. 817.
MARRIAGE, LEGITIMACY AND ADOPTION 29

Section 89 provides that a child will be legitimated by the sub·-


sequent ll1arriage of its parents whether or not there was an impedi-
ment to the marriage of the parents at the time of the birth of the
child and whether or not the child was still living at the time of
marriage or, in the case of a child born before the commencement of
the Act, at th.e commencement of the Act, provicled that at the date
of the marriage the father ,vas domiciled in Australia or the marriage
of his parents took place in Australia or outside Australia under special
provision' of the Act or the Marriage (Overseas) Act 1955. A chil~
so legitimated is legitimated from the date of his birth or the com-
mencement of the Act whichever was the later. Section 90 provides
for the legitimation of a child by the subsequent marriage of his
parents where the marriage took place outside Australia and the
father was not domiciled in Australia at the date of the nlarriage and
was at that time domiciled in a place by the law of which the child
was legitimated by virtue of the marriage. Whether or not the law
of the domicile of the father at the date of the birth of the child per-
mitted or recognized legitimation by subsequent marriage was ex-
pressly stated to be irrelevallt. A cCforeign" legitimation under section
90 operates as from the date of the marriage or the commencement
of the Act whichever was the later. Section 91 provides that a child
of a void marriage is deemed to b·e the legitimate child of his parents
as from his birth or the commencement of the Act, whichever is the
later, if at the time of the intercourse that resulted in the birth of the
child or the time when the ceremony took place, whichever was the
later, either party to the marriage believed on reasonable grounds
that the marriage was valid. The section applies whether the child was
born before or after the commencement of the Act, and whether the
marriage took place before or after the commencement of the Act
and whether the marriage took place in or outside Australia. It is,
however, required that at least one of the parents of the child was
domiciled in Australia at the date of the birth, or having died before
that time, was domiciled in Australia immediately before his death.
The validity of these provisions was challenged, in advance of their
being proclaimed as law, in Attorney-General for Victoria v. Com-
monwealth of Australia. [26l The purpose of the attack was to set at
rest doubts which might then or thereafter affect or attend the title
to proprietary rights and other private rights. The case was first argued
before a Bench of six judges of the High Court in 1961 and was
reargued before a Bench of seven in 1962. This reflected the sharp
divisions in the Court, and by a majority of four to three, sections 89
and 90 were upheld, and by a majority of six to one (Dixon, e.J.,
dissenting) section 91 was held valid. The critical question was
whether these sections were properly characterized as laws with
respect to Inarriage· and matters incidental thereto (Constitution sec-
tion 51 (xxi)' and 51 (xxxix)), since the Commonwealth parliament
is not invested with express powers to legislate with respect to

26 (1962), 107 C.L.R. 5,29; [1962] A.L.R. 673.


30 AUSTRALIAN INTERNATIONAL LAW 1965

legitimacy and legitimation. It is not proposed to canvass in detail


the argument for and against constitutionality; the sharpness of th.e
division in the Court on the issue of the constitutionality of the
legitimation by subsequent marriage sections exposes the difficulties
of characterization which inevitably arise in a federal constitution in
which specific and enumerated powers are conferred. As Kitto, J.,
expressing the majority view, put it: "The enactment is rightly to be
described not only as a law with respect to legitimation but also as a
law with respect to the step to which a legitimating effect is given.
The purpose and operation of the law is to annex a legal incident to
the step, and there seems to be no error of proportion or perspective
in regarding the step itself, no less than legitimation, as a topic of
the law".[27] With that view I agree and I have developed the argu-
ment at length elsewhere. [28] There was some difference of opinion in
the Court as to consequences; particularly on the question whether it
was still open to the States to deprive these sections of operational
effect by denying to persons so legitimated specific advantages, as for
example, in relation to inheritance which they would otherwise derive
from legitimate .status. The majority view appears to be that the States
may take such action, though this is likely to remain an abstract
proposition.
The sections work important changes in the law; sections 89 in
fashioning rules of what might be described as '1ocal" legitimation by
subsequent marriage, and 91 in providing for the legitimacy of the
issue of a putative marriage create new law in the fullest sense, while
section 90 in its provision for the recognition of "foreign" legitimations
fixes less stringent requirements than did the common law. The
doctrine of such cases as in Re Goodman's Trusts [29] required a
capacity for legitimation by the law of the domicile of the father at
the date of the child's birth and at the date of the subsequent mar-
riage. This was an unsatisfactory and needlessly severe rule and the
express deletion of the reference to the lex domicilii at the date of
birth by section 90 (2) is a progressive step.
Commonwealth power to legislate with respect to legitimacy and
legitimation is still limited. As Kitto, J., pointed out in the context of
legitimation: "If the legitimation is made to depend not upon the
contract of a valid marriage but upon the taking of some other step
... there is not such a relation between the law and the subject of
marriage as would justify the description"[30] of a law with respect to
marriage or a matter incidental thereto. It would follow that Common-
wealth legislation providing for legitimation per rescriptum principis
would lack a constitutional base.

27 (1962),107 C.L.R. at p. 554; [1962] A.L.R. at p. 684..


28 Cowen, uLegitimacy, Legitimation and Bigamy" (1963), 36 A.L.J. 239.
29 (1881), 17 Ch.D. 266.
30 (1962), 107 C.L.R. at p. 554; [1962] A.L.R. at p. 684.
MARRIAGE, LEGITIMACY AND ADOPTION 31

Adoption of Children Act 1964


The adoption of Children Act 1964 (Victoria) provides in section 5
that an adoption order shall not be made unless at the time of filing
the application for the order, the applicant or each of the joint
applicants was resident or domiciled in Victoria and the child was
present in Victoria. Heretofore the Victorian legislation did not spell
out the jurisdictional requirements for making an adoption order, and
in Re X, an Infant[31 1 Dean, J., held that a Victorian court had juris-
diction to make an adoption order under the legislation as it then
stood in favour of applicants who were resident though not domiciled
in Victoria. In that case the adopted, infant was domiciled in Victoria,
though that does not appear to have been regarded as a significant
matter by the judge. Dean, J., noted that an order made by a court
which was not a court of the domicile of the adopting parents might
not be accorded recognition elsewhere, but said that this should not be
decisive in fixing the local basis of jurisdiction.
The Act of 1964 requires residence or domicile within the jurisdic-
tion for the adopter and mere presence for the child. This is quite
liberal, and residence will presumably be construed in the sense in
which it is used in such provisions as sections 23 (5) and 24 (2) of the
Matrimonial Causes Act 1959. The judgment of the legislature in not
requiring that the adopters be domiciled within the jurisdiction is
sound, and it is in accordance with the law in New Zealand [32] and
in various Canadian jurisdictions. [3'3] Domicile is a legal concept of
considerable complexity and not infrequently of some artificiality, and
the Victorian Act in providing for the alternative requirement of
residence gives an additional and desirable flexibility while preserv-
ing an adequate nexus with the jurisdiction. It may be a question
whether it was necessary even to require residence; the New Zealand
Adoption Act 1955, section 3 (1), prOvides that a court may upon an
application made by any person whether domiciled in New Zealand
or not, make an adop'tion order in respect of any child whether
domiciled in New Zealand or not. This leaves the New Zealand courts
wide latitude to work out their own practice, and suggests that the
courts in deciding whether to assume jurisdiction to make an order in
any particular case will consider all the facts and not be constrained
by any speCific technical requirement, whether of domicile or of
residence.
Part 3 of the Adoption of Children Act deals with the recognition
of adop,tions. It provides-
"40. In this Part, 'country' includes a part of a country.
41. For the purposes of the laws of Victoria, the adoption of a person
(whether before or after the commencement of this Act) in another
State, or in a Territory of the Commonwealth, in accordance with the

31 [1960] V.R.733.
32 Adoption Act 1955, section 3 (1).
33 See G. D. Kennedy, "Adoption in the Conflicts of Laws" (1956), 34 C.B.R.,
at pp. 509-21.
32 AUSTRALIAN INTERNATIONAL LAW 1965

law of that State or Territory has, so long as it has not been rescinded
under the law in force in that State or Territory, the same effect as an
adoption order made in Victoria, and has no other effect.
42. (1 ) For the purposes of the laws of Victoria, the adoption of a
person (whether before or after the commencement of this Act) in a
country outside the Commonwealth and the Territories of the Common-
wealth, being an adoption to which this section applies, has, so long
as it has not been rescinded under the law of that country, the same
effect as an adoption order under this Act.
(2) This section applies to an adoption in a country if-
(a) the adoption was effective according to the law of that
country;
(b) at the time at which the legal steps that resulted in the adop-
tion wer~ commenced the adopter, or each of the adopters, was
resident or domiciled in that country;
(c) in consequence of the adoption, the adopter or adopters had,
or would (if the adopted person had been a young child) have
had, immediately following the adoption, according to the law
of that country, a right superior to that of any natural parent of
the adopted person in respect of the custody of the adopted
person; and
(d) under the law of that country the adopter or adopters were,
by the adoption, placed generally in relation to the adopted person
in the position of a parent or parents.
(3) Notwithstanding the foregoing provisions of this section, a Court
(including a Court dealing with an application under the next succeed-
ing section) may refuse to recognize an adoption as being an adoption
to which this section applies if it appears to the Court that the pro-
cedure followed, or the law applied, in connexion with the adoption
involved a denial of natural justice or did not comply with the re-
quirements of substantial justice.
(4) Where, in any proceedings before a Court (including proceedings
under the next succeeding section), the question arises whether an
adoption is one to which this section applies, it shall be presumed,
unless the contrary appears from the evidence, that the adoption
complies with the requirements of sub-section (2) of this section and
has not been rescinded.
(5) Except as provided in this section, the adoption of a person
(whether before or after the commencement of this Act) in a country
outside the Commonwealth and the Territories of the Commonwealth
does not have effect for the purposes of the laws of Victoria.
(6) Nothing in this section affects any right that was acquired by, or
became vested in, a person before the commencement of this Act."
Subsisting adoptions made under the laws of other States and
Territories are recognized in Victoria on the footing that they are to
have the same effect as an adoption order made in Victoria and. no
other. The general principle of recognition of interstate (including
territorial) orders follows the pattern set by section 95 ( 1) of the
Matrimonial Causes Act 1959 providing for the recognition of inter-
state decrees or dissolution or nullity of marriage. That section put at
end the controversy over the decision in Harris v. Harris[34] and the
implications of that decision,[35] in the matrimonial context, anyway.

34 [1947] V.L.R. 44.


35 See Cowen, "Full Faith and Credit: The Australian Experience", in Essays
on the Australian Constitution (2nd 00., 19(1), at pp. 307, et seq.
MARRIAGE, LEGITIMACY AND ADOPTION

The basis on which Fullagar, J., rested his decision, that section 18
of the State and Territorial Laws and Records Recognition Act 1901-
1950 (which provides that "all public acts, records and judicial pro-
ceedings of any State, if proved or authenticated as required by this
Act, shall have such faith and credit given to them in every Court
and public office within the Commonwealth as they have by law or
usage in the C'ourt and public offices of the State or Territory from
whence they are taken"), peremptorily required that a New South
Wales divorce decree be recognized in Victoria \vithout inquiry into
the assumption of jurisdiction by the New South Wales court,· may
raise a question whether it is lawful to limit the effect a:nd recognition
of a sister state adoption as is done in section 41 of th.e Adoption of
Children Act. It is submitted that it is lawful for the States so to
provide, and, in any event, it is possible to ensure this result by the
enactment of appropriate uniform State and Territorial legislation.
The notion that the measure of recognition to be accorded to a foreign
(in this case, a sister State) adoption is the measure accorded by the
recognizing State to its own adop'tions is, it is submitted, sound and
the express provision in seetion 41 puts an end to controversy over
this issue. [36]
The provision for the recognition of foreign adoptions in the
wider sense which is made by section 42 requires (1) that the foreign
adoption was effective accordjng to the law of that country; (2) that
the adopter(s) were resident or domiciled in the country of adoption,;
(3) that the effect of the foreign adoption is in· that country to give
the adopter a right superior to the natural parents in respect of the
custody of the child; (4) that the effect of the adoption is generally
to place the adopting parent in the position of a parent; (5) that the
procedure adopted in making the foreign adoption did not involve a
denial of natural justice and complied with the requirements of sub-
stantial justice.
As to this, it may be observed that as in the case of recognition of
foreign matrimonial decrees undeT section 95 of the Matrimonial
Causes Act, the Adoption of C'hildren Act provides broad symmetry
in local jurisdiction and recognition of foreign orders, save that in the
recognition provision there is no express requirement that the child
should be present within the jurisdiction in which the foreign adop-
tion was made. Apart from this the recognition provision reflects the
philosophy of Travers v. Holley.[37] In so far as the jurisdictional basis
is broad-the residence or domicile of the adopting parents-this is
reasonably satisfactory and it is not likely to produee many hard
cases. It is good that the legislature has not insisted that the adopter
be domiciled in the foreign country. Recently Scarman., J., proposed

36 See Re Pearson, [1946] V.L.R. 356. And see P. Gerber, uS ome Aspects of
Adoptions in the Conflict of Laws" (1965), 38 A.L.J. 309, and cases there
cited.
37 [1953] P. 246.
34 AUSTRALIAN INTERNATIONAL LAW 1965

that a foreign adoption should be recognized if it was effected accord-


ing to the law of the domicile of the adopting parent [38] and the
present writer in reply argued that the requirement of domicile was
too restrictive. [39] The draftsman of the Victorian Act has taken the
less restrictive view, save that he has fonnulated his jurisdictional
rules in terms 'that require the adopter to be resident or domiciled
in the country in which the adoption was made. It might have been
more appropriate and sufficient to require that the law of the residence
or domicile of the adopter should regard the adoption as effective.
For example: an adoption might be made in Ruritania where the
adopter is physically present but ,not domiciled or resident. That
adoption is valid by Ruritanian law. The adopter is domiciled (or
resident) in Barataria and Baratarian law recognizes the Ruritanian
adoption. Is there not a good case for recognizing the Ruritanian
adoption which in all other respects satisfies the terms of section
42 (2)? This result appears to be foreclosed because of the precise
terms of section 42 (2), and section 42 (5) provides that only an
adoption which complies with the requirement of section 42 will have
effect for the purposes of the laws of Victoria. There is no saving
provision comparable with section 95 (5) of the Matrimonial Causes
Act.
This defect apart, section 42 clarifies the law with respect to the
recognition of foreign adoptions, which was in an uncertain and un-
satisfactory state. [40] It also furnishes a liberal rule of recognition,
more liberal than was anticipated by Dean, J., in Re X, an Infant[ 41 l
when he indicated that an adoption order made by a court which was
not the forum domicilii of the adopter might have limited, recognition.
Provided that the adopter is resident in the foreign forum of adoption,
the decree will be recognized subject to the other reasonable safe-
guards which are written into the section. Of these the least clear is
section 42 (3) which refers to denial of natural justice and the require-
ments of substantial justice. This will raise questions of a kind which
arise under section 95 (7) of the Matrimonial Causes Act, and the
Courts will have to work these out. Doubtless one relevant question
which will arise in this context will be whether the natural parents of
the adopted child were accorded an adequate opportunity to be
heard. As a general comment on the recognition provision, it may be
that an even more liberal recognition rule would have been p,refer-
able. In New Zealand, the Adoption Act 1955, section 17, does not even
require residence of the adopter in the foreign co'untry, and some
Canadian jurisdictions have very liberal recognition rules.[ 42 l But the

38 (1962), 11 I.C.L.Q. 635.


39 "English Law and Foreign Adoptions" (1963), 12 I.C.L.Q. 168.
40 See Dicey, Conflict of Laws (7th ed., 1958) at pp. 460 et seq.
41 [1960] V.R. 7a3, at p. 735.
42 See Cowen, "English Law and Foreign Adoptions" (1963), 12 I.C.L.Q., at
pp. 173-4.
MARRIAGE, LEGITIMACY AND ADOPTION 35

Victorian )egislation has gone a long way in providing liberal recog-


nition roles and, particularly in a country of immigration, that is sound
policy. The Act in section 42 (1) provides that an adoption effected
under the section shall have the same effect as an adoption order under
this Act. This appears to express the same policy as is stated in section
41, in the case of interstate adoption orders. In section 41, however,
the language is "the same effect as an adoption order made in Victoria
and has no other effect" while in section 42 the words are "the same
effect as an adoption order under this Act". The draftsman ,;vas less
definite in dealing with the effects of "foreign" adoption in the wider
sense, and the courts will have to detennine whether there is any
significance in the change of language.

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