Divorce

In developed countries, divorce rates have increased markedly during the twentieth century. Among the states in which divorce has become commonplace are the United States, Japan, Korea and members of the European Union. In U.S, Canada, the United Kingdom and other some other developed Commonwealth countries, this boom in divorce developed in the last half of the twentieth century. In addition, acceptance of the single-parent family has resulted in many women deciding to have children outside marriage as there is little remaining social stigma attached to unwed mothers. The subject of divorce as a social phenomenon is an important research topic in sociology.

Some researchers argue that divorce rate does not always reflect actual interactions among people; that is, some countries may show a low divorce rate because, in such countries, people rarely get married in the first place.

The term between divorce and remarriage varies depending on the country and the gender of the divorcee. In some countries, women need to wait longer than men before remarrying to avoid confusion about paternity. Children born after divorce may or may not be recognized as children of their father depending on the period between divorce and birth. In most common law jurisdictions there is a presumption that the child born during the marriage is the father's child, however this presumption can be overcome by identifying the putative father and bringing a paternity or affiliation proceeding. If the child was conceived before the divorce but born afterward this is the kind of grey area that jurists enjoy litigating. If a man accepts the child as his own he may be declared the father by estoppel as the parens patrie power of the court would rather the child have a male role model responsible for child support and other parental obligations rather than have the child grow up in a monoparental family.

A man who has been divorced is a divorcé; a divorced woman is a divorcée (from French).

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Table of contents

1 History of divorce 1.1 Great Britain 2 Religious/cultural attitudes to divorce 3 Social and psychological issues 4 Legal aspects of divorce 4.2 United States 4.3 Canada 4.4 Japan 4.5 United Kingdom 5 Statistics 6 See also 7 External links

History of divorce

Divorce in some jurisdictions is a relatively recent phenomenon. In Canada there was no divorce law until the 1960s. Before that the only way to get divorced was to apply to the Canadian Senate where a special committee would undertake an investigation of a request for a divorce and if they found that the request had merit, the marriage would be dissolved by an Act of Parliament.

Great Britain

Prior to 1670 a marriage could only be ended by the Church courts if it could be shown to have never existed in the first place, either through inability to consent (e.g. insanity) or by want of capacity to marry (e.g. precontract, consanguinity, the two parties were related by a previous marriage). A marriage could also be ended if one of the parties were impotent or frigid when the marriage was contracted. It was also possible to get a legal separation from the church known as divorce a mensa et thoro (from board and hearth). Grounds for the separation included adultery, cruelty and heresy, and it meant that any offspring were not rendered illegitimate. However neither spouse could remarry until the other had died.

In the 1530s, Henry VIII decided that he wished to divorce his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, on the grounds of affinity; he argued that, since Catherine was his brother Arthur's widow, the marriage had never really existed. Catherine claimed that her marriage to Arthur had never been properly consummated. In 1533 Thomas Cranmer was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury and he declared that Henry's marriage to Catherine was void, effectively bastardizing their daughter Mary (later Mary I). In 1536 Cranmer similarly declared Henry's marriage to Anne Boleyn void, most probably due to Henry's pervious relationship with Anne's sister Mary Boleyn. Cranmer tried to reform the Church of England's Canon law so that it allowed divorce for adultery, cruelty, and desertion, but these changes were not implemented.

Following Lord Roos's divorce on the grounds of adultery in 1670, the procedure for divorce in English law went as follows: first the husband brought an action for "criminal conversation" to establish the adultery, then he obtained a divorce a mensa et thoro from the church and then finally he petitioned the House of Lords to grant the divorce.

In 1853 a Royal Commission made recommendations on how to improve the procedure of getting a divorce. In 1857 the Court for Divorce and Matrimonial Causes, based in London, was established, taking over the divorce duties of the church courts. Men could obtain divorce for adultery, but women had to prove cruelty or desertion, in addition of their husband's adultery. In 1923 women were allowed to use the same grounds for divorce as men. In 1969, after much debate, matrimonial breakdown became grounds for divorce.

Religious/cultural attitudes to divorce

Many countries in Europe, such as France prohibited divorce as it was not condoned by the Catholic church. Sometimes citizens would have to travel to other jurisdictions to obtain a divorce.

David Instone-Brewer has an extensive website at www.instone-brewer.com which discusses marriage and divorce from 1st century context.

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Social and psychological issues

Women are generally the financial victims of divorce due to the lack of equal pay for equal work in many countries and the fact that many women give up employment after marriage to bring up children. They are often left with the burden of looking after the children after the divorce while having to find work in low-paid jobs. Child support collection is a major problem as many fathers do not accept that they have an obligation towards their children. Many national and local governments provide some kind of welfare system for divorced mothers and their children. See single mother for details. Recognition of the problems faced by fathers and other relatives is given by self-help groups such as Families Need Fathers .

causes of divorce

effects on children

women's shelters etc.

human rights issues

United States

Under the laws of all of the states of the United States (excepting New York) a divorce is now called dissolution of marriage.

This change in nomenclature was concomitant with the trend of most states to depart from the more restrictive fault-based divorce to the more liberal no-fault divorce standard.

A number of states have discarded fault-based grounds for divorce, however all 50 states do offer some form of no-fault divorce.

• Fault-Based Divorce

• No-Fault Divorce

Part and parcel to divorce are:

financial settlements

children's issues.

pre-nuptial agreements.

The Canada Divorce Act recognizes three grounds for divorce: adultery, cruelty, and being separated for one year. Most divorces proceed on the basis of the spouses being separated for one year, even if there has been cruelty or adultery. This is because proving cruelty or adultery is expensive and time consuming. [1] The one-year period of separation starts from the time at least one spouse intends to live separate and apart from the other and acts on it. You do not need a piece of paper or a court order to be separated. There is no such thing as a "legal separation" in Canada. [1] You can be separated even if you are living in the same house. You can apply for the divorce in a province in which you or your spouse has lived for at least one year.

Japan

There are also three other types of divorce in Japan: Divorce by mediation in a family court (chotei rikon), Divorce by judgement of the family court (shimpan rikon), and Divorce by judgment of a district court (saiban rikon).

United Kingdom

• Matrimonial Causes Act 1973
• Family Law Act 1996
• Children Act 1989
• The Family Proceedings Courts (Matrimonial Proceedings etc.) Rules 1991
• Marriage Act 1949

A more accurate concluding statement to draw from this data would be "The divorce rate is half the marriage rate." The statement "50% of marriages end in divorce" would instead have to study a sample of marriages throughout their duration, that is, over a period of many years, and determine how many of the marriages actually performed ended in divorce (as compared to annulment or death of a spouse). These two statements would be equivalent if (1) marriage and divorce trends did not change over a time period equal to the length of a marriage (say, 50 years), and (2) all divorces were performed in the same country as their marriage. While the second statement is close enough to true, the first one is clearly not, as during the ten year period from 1991 to 2001 the divorce rate decreased from 0.47% to the above stated 0.40%.[1]

See also

External links

• S.P.A.R.C. -- Huge archive of divorce and custody information
• Quickie Divorce UK
• Discussion of the effects of divorce on kids