2020 Georgia Code
Title 1 - General Provisions
Chapter 2 - Persons and Their Rights
§ 1-2-8. Rights of Minors
The law prescribes certain ages at which persons shall be considered of sufficient maturity to discharge certain civil functions, to make contracts, and to dispose of property. Prior to those ages they are minors and are, on account of that disability, unable to exercise these rights as citizens unless such minor becomes emancipated by operation of law or pursuant to Article 10 of Chapter 11 of Title 15.
(Orig. Code 1863, § 1588; Code 1868, § 1651; Code 1873, § 1657; Code 1882, § 1657; Civil Code 1895, § 1811; Civil Code 1910, § 2168; Code 1933, § 79-208; Ga. L. 2006, p. 141, § 2/HB 847; Ga. L. 2013, p. 294, § 4-1/HB 242.)
Cross references.- Capacity of minors to enter into contracts, § 13-3-20.
Capacity of minors to apply for, receive, and repay educational loans, § 20-3-287.
Age of majority, § 39-1-1.
Editor's notes.- Ga. L. 2013, p. 294, § 5-1/HB 242, not codified by the General Assembly, provides that: "This Act shall become effective on January 1, 2014, and shall apply to all offenses which occur and juvenile proceedings commenced on and after such date. Any offense occurring before January 1, 2014, shall be governed by the statute in effect at the time of such offense and shall be considered a prior adjudication for the purpose of imposing a disposition that provides for a different penalty for subsequent adjudications, of whatever class, pursuant to this Act. The enactment of this Act shall not affect any prosecutions for acts occurring before January 1, 2014, and shall not act as an abatement of any such prosecutions."
Law reviews.- For article recommending more consistency in age requirements of laws pertaining to the welfare of minors, see 6 Ga. St. B. J. 189 (1969). For article on 2006 amendment of this Code section, see 23 Ga. St. U. L. Rev. 79 (2006).
JUDICIAL DECISIONS
Workers' compensation provisions operate uniformly upon all minors who are employed under such circumstances as to come under the provisions, who are 18 years of age or over, and who are not mentally incompetent or physically incapable of earning a livelihood. Rourke v. U.S. Fid. & Guar. Co., 187 Ga. 636, 1 S.E.2d 728 (1939).
Infants are citizens, and yet they are denied by the law many civil rights; they cannot contract or make wills. White v. Clements, 39 Ga. 232 (1869); Howard v. Tucker, 65 Ga. 323 (1880).
RESEARCH REFERENCES
Am. Jur. 2d.
- 16B Am. Jur. 2d, Constitutional Law, § 642.
C.J.S.- 43 C.J.S., Infants, § 220 et seq.
ALR.
- Rights of mortgagee or conditional vendor under a mortgage or conditional sale contract executed by an infant, against the property covered in the hands of a third person to whom it has been conveyed or transferred by the infant, 69 A.L.R. 1371.
Effect of infant's disaffirmance of purchase-money mortgage or judgment, 77 A.L.R. 987.
Minor's entry into home of parent as sufficient to sustain burglary charge, 17 A.L.R.5th 111.
