ABSTRACT
The distinction between legitimate and illegitimate children is fundamental in European law. Legitimation of illegitimate children falls under 'la coutume évoluée de Kinshasa', and is tried only by the central court. As the law of Kinshasa is unwritten, the scope of the notions concerning illegitimate birth are best studied through cases of legitimation, affiliation, and guardianship. The wife's bigamy was only technical, and the court found it necessary to soften the hardship of a procedural rule of Kinshasa customary law. Two quite different situations have to be considered, the first being that of a child born of parents living in concubinage, of which one at least was married at the time of his begetting or birth. Second, since Congolese law provides that polygamous marriages are void: this is the problem of the child born in customary wedlock, in case the marriage of his parents is void under the provisions of the décret of 4 April 1950.
