Legal age

“ CŪRĀTOR. Till a Roman youth attained the age of puberty, which was generally fixed at fourteen years of age, he was incapable of any legal act, and was under the authority of a tutor or guardian; but with the attainment of the age of puberty, he became capable of performing every legal act, and was freed from the control of his tutor. As, however, a person of that tender age was liable to be imposed upon, the lex Plaetoria enacted that every person between the time of puberty and twenty-five years of age should be under the protection of a curator. ”

“ There is no legal warrant for concluding that such an age is ipso facto proof of mental incapacity in view of the general rule that incapacity is to be presumed only where a child is under the age of 14. ”

“ Conditions of To-day.—In all departments of modern legal systems the principle gains general acceptance that persons under age require to be treated differently from adults. The actual legal regulations respecting young people are different from those which apply to adults. ”

“ In English law a male at fourteen and a female at twelve may consent or disagree to marriage, but it cannot be celebrated without the consent of the parents or guardians until the parties are of age. A female at fourteen is at years of legal discretion, and may choose a guardian; at seventeen may be an executrix; and at twenty-one may dispose of herself and her lands. So that full age in male or female is twenty-one years, which age is completed on the day preceding the anniversary of a person's birth, who till that time is an infant, and so styled in law. ”

“ Then, seeing their disappointment, he suggested the expedient of a legal guardianship: any individual over fifty years of age can attach himself to a minor of fifteen years or less by a legal claim, on becoming their official protector. ”

“ Where, in any proceedings under this Act, a person is alleged to be a child or young person, the court, after making such inquiry as it thinks fit as to the age of that person, may determine and declare his age, and for the purposes of this Act, the age so declared by the court shall be deemed to be the true age of that person, unless the contrary is proved, in the same or any subsequent proceedings brought in relation to that person. ”

“ I. First, we will consider the cafe of infancy, or nonage ; which is a defect of the understanding. Infants, under the age of discretion, ought not to be punished by any criminal prosecution whatever [1] . What the age of discretion is, in various nations is matter of some variety. The civil law distinguished the age of minors, or those under twenty five years old, into three stages : infantia, from the birth till seven years of age ”

“ There is not the slightest suggestion that Congress suspected, that the registration and liability provisions of §§ 453 and 454 interrelated provisions which must fairly be read in pari materia ever created anything other than continuing duties until the specified 26-year age limit was reached.↑ Petitioner has suggested that if the duty to register is continuing, there is no logical stopping place for bounding the duty, so that 'a person seventy years old can be prosecuted for having failed to register fifty-two years before at the age of eighteen.' Brief for Petitioner 17. ”

“ The Code Civile (in France) adjusts the presumption to specific periods of life. If those who perished were all under 15 years of age, the eldest is presumed to have survived; if all above 60 years, the youngest. If some under 15, and others above 60, the former shall be presumed to have survived. ”

“ In this country the regulation is general, that the candidate must be twenty-one years of age. Such, too, was the regulation adopted by the General Assembly, which met on the 27th Dec., 1663, and which prescribed that "no person shall be accepted unless he be twenty-one years old or more." ”

“ It is obviously right that children should receive special protection from the law. The higher limit of the age of protection varies from ten to eighteen years. Ten years is the age-limit in certain States of the American Union ”

“ Jurists define it as "that period of life at which the law allows persons to do acts and discharge functions which, for want of years, they were prohibited from doing or undertaking before" (Bouvier's Law Dict.) . They divide the years of a man into seven ages, to wit: infancy, from the day of birth, not baptism (Sacr. Congr. Conc., 4 December, 1627) , to the seventh year; childhood, 7–14; puberty, 14–25; majority (young manhood) , 25–40; manhood, 40–50 or 60; old age, 60–70; decrepitude, 70–100, or death. The terminal year in each of the above ages must be complete. Canonical age is the year. ”

“ The declaration that a person is 9 years of age signifies, in the absence of conditions requiring exact specification, merely that he has reached or passed the ninth anniversary of his birth and is still less than 10 years old. There was neither a statute nor a regulation of the Commission which required an exact specification of age. Nor did the printed blank used for the enrollment provide a space either for entering the date of applicant's birthday or for entering the number of months and days by which his age exceeded a full year. ”

“ This expression is entitled to the more influence, from the consideration that the condition is to be performed by the person having the right at the age of twenty-one, or in a convenient time afterwards. The devisee might be an infant at the time of the death of J. T. M. The person who has the right, if an infant, is allowed till he attains his age of twenty-one years, and a reasonable time afterwards, to perform the condition. ”

“ Upon the Assise proceeding against a Minor, if the Seisin should be awarded to continue with him, he shall not answer concerning the Right, until he has attained his full age. For, it is a general principle, that a Minor is not obliged to answer to any suit by which he may possibly be deprived of his Inheritance, or by which he can lose life or member, until he attain his full age. ”

“ But where a State uses its juvenile court proceedings to prosecute a juvenile for a criminal act and to order 'confinement' until the child reaches 21 years of age or where the child at the threshold of the proceedings faces that prospect, then he is entitled to the same procedural protection as an adult. ”

“ In the case at bar, as the youngest grandchild must be in being in the life-time of his parent, and that parent was born in the testator's life-time, the devise to the grandchildren, and even the devise over, upon the arrival of the youngest grandchild at 21 years of age, to the children of any grandchild deceased before that time, must necessarily take effect, as to every devisee, within a life or lives in being and 21 years afterwards, and therefore do not violate the rule of the common law ”

“ Men who hold that a girl is not old enough to give lawful consent to lawful marriage or to the sale of property until she is 18 years old, say she is, at the age of ten, to be held old enough to give consent to her own eternal disgrace, ruin, degradation! ”

“ If this construction of the act does not prevail, there can be no fixed age in childhood when manumission can take effect; and the act would be made to operate differently upon persons by no certain rule. The legislature having laid down the age after which manumission shall not be made, a strong presumption is raised that it did not mean to exclude all infants absolutely from the benefits of the act, or it would have said so in terms; or have fixed an age when, in childhood, manumission should be allowed. ”

“ The rights of minors are as sacred as the rights of the aged. The difference is altogether in the different age of the two parties, and nothing in the nature of the rights; the rights are the same rights; and are to be preserved inviolate for the inheritance of the minors when they shall come of age. ”

“ For purposes of this subsection, the determination of whether an individual is a youth shall be based on the individual’s age at the time that the individual is taken into custody for the alleged criminal conduct. ”

“ It gives the right to such parent or guardian to invoke the aid of the court, and secure the restoration of a minor to his or her control; but it gives no privilege to the minor. The age at which an infant shall be competent to do any acts or perform any duties, military or civil, depends wholly upon the legislature. ”

“ There are occasions when evidence emerges to indicate that a person who has been detained in other circumstances and as an adult is under 18. In those circumstances, the individual will be released from detention as soon as the local authority can make appropriate arrangements for them in the community. If the case meets the criteria for an age dispute case as set out in the following published criteria, the individual will be the subject of a formal local authority age assessment and will be treated as under 18 pending the outcome of the assessment. ”

“ There may even be a little truth in the assertion that in a large country, owing to racial and climatic differences, no uniform classification of offenders according to ages can be adopted. And yet the definition of age-limits in the case of criminal offenders is indispensable. ”

“ All justices of the Supreme Court and judges of all subordinate courts shall be retired at such age, not less than ninety years of age, as the General Assembly may prescribe by law, or, if the General Assembly has not so provided by law, at the end of the calendar year in which they attain seventy years of age or at the end of the term of election during which they attain seventy years of age, as the case may be, and shall be pensioned as provided by law. ”

“ Rep. 415, that the minor children of laborers, old enough to do work, are not required to have certificates. The language of the statute certainly is broad enough to include them and does not indicate a division by local laws with regard to coming of age. ”

“ It is very difficult to lay down any hard and fast rules for that. All parents must generally know when they can part with their children. The solution of the question depends moreover on the character of the boy who wants to go. Then again it depends on what he wants to do there. If he wants to pass the Civil Service examination, the limit of age in now 23. For a person desiring to be a barrister, he must be twenty-one years before he is called. ”

“ Their clothing is to be non-distinctive. In short, the sixtieth birthday is a milestone: all those who have passed it, whatever the cause of their entering the workhouse, whatever their conduct whilst in it, can legally be treated by the Guardians with certain indulgences which are prohibited for those under that age. It will probably be found that the practice of most Boards of Guardians follows the presumption of the law, and that those past sixty are in the main treated alike. ”

“ Civil Rights.—The age at which a girl can contract a valid marriage, in English law, is, following the Roman law, twelve; she is thus two years in advance of a boy, who must be fourteen. Under the Infants Settlement Act 1855, a valid settlement could be made by a woman at seventeen with the approval of the court, the age for a man being twenty; by the Married Women's Property Act 1907 any settlement by a husband of his wife's property is not valid unless executed by her if she is of full age, or confirmed by her after she attains full age. ”

“ No child of less than twelve years of age can be proceeded against in a court of law, although in some German states destitute or abandoned children have been taken at the ages of six, five and even three years. Youths between twelve and eighteen may be convicted, but their offences are passed over if they are proved to have acted without discretion. ”

“ Furthermore, provision must be made for preventing persons apparently under the age of sixteen years whilst being conveyed to or from court, or whilst waiting before or after their attendance in court, from associating with adults, unless such adults are charged jointly with them. The act prohibits any persons other than members and officers of the court, the parties to the case, their solicitors, counsel and other persons directly concerned in the case, from being present in a juvenile court, except by leave of the court. ”

“ Where a child or young person is brought before a Juvenile Court for any offence, it shall be the duty of the Court as soon as possible to explain to him in simple language suitable to his age and understanding the substance of the alleged offence. ”

“ The law says that no person shall marry who is under age, without the consent of his or her parents; and the law has very justly drawn this line. The law, therefore, very properly contemplates that no parent shall have the absolute controul over the person of a child in this matter after that child has come of age. ”

“ Any child so committed may, upon proof of amendment, or for after sufficient cause shown upon a hearing of the case be discharged by such judge or court at any time, but such child shall not be so confined after the age of fourteen years, nor shall he be bound or apprenticed nor placed out of any school to which he shall be committed. ”

“ Any married person who has attained the age of 18 is treated in precisely the same way as all persons of the age of 21 and over with regard to all provisions of the Civil Code, Probate Code, and Code of Civil Procedure, as well as for the purposes of making contracts or entering into any agreement regarding property or his estate. ”

“ I see none: the rights of a child of two years of age, appear to me quite as sacred as those of a child of thirteen; or if you admit that age makes any difference, then you must allow that a child of thirteen ought to have less than a man of twenty. ”