Divorce is the process of terminating a marriage or marital union. Divorce usually entails the canceling or reorganizing of the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage, thus dissolving the bonds of matrimony between a married couple under the rule of law of the particular country or state. It can be said to be a legal dissolution of a marriage by a court or other competent body. It is the legal process of ending a marriage.
Sir Alan Patrick HerbertCH, was an English humorist, novelist, playwright, law reformist, and, from 1935 to 1950, an independent Member of Parliament for Oxford University.
The Deceased Wife's Sister's Marriage Act 1907 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, allowing a man to marry his dead wife's sister, which had previously been forbidden. This prohibition had derived from a doctrine of canon law whereby those who were connected by marriage were regarded as being related to each other in a way which made marriage between them improper.
The Divorce Act is the federal Act that governs divorce in Canada. The Constitution of Canada gives the federal Parliament exclusive jurisdiction to regulate the law of marriage and divorce.
Grounds for divorce are regulations specifying the circumstances under which a person will be granted a divorce. Each state in the United States has its own set of grounds. A person must state the reason they want a divorce at a divorce trial and be able to prove that this reason is well-founded. Several states require that the couple must live apart for several months before being granted a divorce. However, living apart is not accepted as grounds for a divorce in many states.
This article is a general overview of divorce laws around the world. Every nation in the world allows its residents to divorce under some conditions except the Philippines and the Vatican City, an ecclesiastical sovereign city-state, which has no procedure for divorce. In these two countries, laws only allow annulment of marriages.
The Matrimonial Causes Act 1857 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The Act reformed the law on divorce, moving litigation from the jurisdiction of the ecclesiastical courts to the civil courts, establishing a model of marriage based on contract rather than sacrament and widening the availability of divorce beyond those who could afford to bring proceedings for annulment or to promote a private Bill. It was one of the Matrimonial Causes Acts 1857 to 1878.
Christian personal law or family law regulates adoption, divorce, guardianship, marriage and succession in India. The provisions of canon law concerning marriage are recognised as the personal law of Catholics in India. Marriages of Indian Catholics are regulated by the Indian Christian Marriage Act, 1872. Christian personal law is not applicable in Goa; instead, the Goa civil code is the set of civil laws that regulate the residents of the Indian state of Goa. In India as a whole, there are religion-specific civil codes that separately govern adherents of different religions. Goa is an exception to that rule in that a single secular code governs all Goans, irrespective of religion, ethnicity or linguistic affiliation.
At common law, criminal conversation, often abbreviated as crim. con., is a tort arising from adultery. "Conversation" is an old euphemism for sexual intercourse that is obsolete except as part of this term.
Holy Deadlock is a 1934 satirical novel by the English author A. P. Herbert, which aimed to highlight the perceived inadequacies and absurdities of contemporary divorce law. The book took a particularly lenient view of the need for divorces, which it characterised as "a relief from misfortune, not a crime", and demonstrated how the current system created an environment which encouraged the participants to commit perjury and adultery. The book was a major element in the popular debate about the liberalisation of divorce law in the mid-1930s, and helped pave the way for the 1937 statutory reforms.
William Henry Chetwynd was a son of Sir George Chetwynd, 2nd Baronet. He lived at Longdon Hall, Rugeley, in Staffordshire and was involved in a sensational divorce case in 1865.
The Divorce Act 1958 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that modified the law relating to divorce to widen the definition of insanity and alleviate any hardships caused by the ability to divorce on the ground of desertion, as introduced in Matrimonial Causes Act 1937. The Act was based on the recommendations of Royal Commission on Marriage and Divorce, and was introduced immediately after receiving royal assent on 23 July 1958.
The Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 is an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom governing divorce law and marriage in England and Wales.
Divorcein South African law refers to the termination of a marital union, the canceling of the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage and the dissolving of the bonds of matrimony between a married couple. Divorce is unlike ANNULMENT, which declares the marriage null and void. Divorce requires the sanction of a court in a legal process. The legal process of divorce may also involve issues of alimony, child custody, child support, distribution of property and division of debt.
In England and Wales, divorce is allowed under the Divorce, Dissolution and Separation Act 2020 on the ground that the marriage has irretrievably broken down without having to prove fault or separation.
Jane Addison was the first woman in the United Kingdom to petition a divorce against her husband through an Act of Parliament and did so with success. The divorce was on the grounds of her husband's incestuous adultery and was granted in 1801. Only four other woman successfully won full divorce petitions against their husband before 1857. Prior to 1857, there were only 329 successful divorces granted in the United Kingdom.
The Divorce Reform Act 1969 is an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom. The Act reformed the law on divorce in England and Wales by enabling couples to divorce after they had been separated for two years if they both desired a divorce, or five years if only one wanted a divorce. People could end marriages that had "irretrievably broken down" and neither partner had to prove "fault". It received royal assent on 22 October 1969 and became law when it commenced on 1 January 1971.
The history of adultery in English law is a complex topic, including changing understandings of what sexual acts constituted adultery, unequal treatment of men and women under the law, and competing jurisdictions of secular and ecclesiastical authorities. Prosecution for adultery as such ceased to be possible in English law in 1970.
May Seaton-Tiedeman was a prominent American-born campaigner in Britain for divorce law reform, and an active member of the Ethical movement.
The Family Proceedings Act 1980 is the Act that governs divorce in New Zealand. The New Zealand Parliament has exclusive jurisdiction to regulate the law of marriage and divorce.
