Immaturity and the juridical ability to contract marriage in terms of canon 1095 of the code of canon law

Abstract

By far the most common grounds that are brought forward in Ecclesiastical Tribunals nowadays to prove the nullity of a marriage are those of lack of due discretion and inability to assume and fulfil marital obligations. Often enough, the motive to sustain such a claim is that either or both parties were not sufficiently mature to contract marriage at the time of their wedding. But what exactly are the canonical implications of this? What amount of maturity does canonical jurisprudence require of a person to be considered capable of contracting a valid marriage? The following is a reproduction of The Law Section in a recent Decision of the First Instance Ecclesiastical Tribunal, before Fr. Joseph Bajada, Judge and Relator. The Nullity of the marriage in case was alleged on the grounds of lack of sufficient discretion of judgement and / or inability to assume marital obligations because of immaturity in one of the parties.