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186
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XXIV.—THE NEW LAW OF DIVORCE. ? -«-
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-- The tendency of recent legislation ha...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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186
186
Xxiv.—The New Law Of Divorce. ? -«-
XXIV . —THE NEW LAW OF DIVORCE . _? - « -
-- The Tendency Of Recent Legislation Ha...
_-- The tendency of recent legislation has been to remove soine of the
disabilities under which women peculiarly labour . The act 20 & 21 Viet ., c . 85 , has made important changes in the
Law of Divorce , and gives to married persons facilities to get rid of the miseries of unfortunate marital connexions , not before permitted
to either sex . By the above act , entitled " An Act to amend the Law relating
to Divorce and Matrimonial Causes in England , " a new _coiirt , with peculiar and exclusive jurisdiction , has been established , and
the jurisdiction hitherto exerciseable by any ecclesiastical court in England in respect of divorces a mensd et thoro , suits of nullity of
marriage , suits of jactitation of marriage , suits for restitution of conjugal rights , and in all causes , suits and matters matrimonial , is
abolished , except so far as relates to the granting of marriage licenseswhich may be granted as if this act had not been passed .
The new , tribunal , entitled " The Court for Divorce and Matrimonial Causes , " of which the Lord Chancellor , the Lord Chief
Justices of the Courts of Queen's Bench and Common Pleas , the Lord Chief Baron of the Court of Exchequer , the senior _Piiisne
Judges of the last three mentioned courts , and the Judge of her Majesty ' s Court of Probate ( constituted by the act Viet . 20 & 21 , c . 77 )
are the judges , has now sole jurisdiction in England in all the matters hereinbefore noticed , with the following exception , namely ,
that no decree shall hereafter be made for a divorce a mensd et thoro ( i . e . from bed and board ); but in all cases in which a divorce a
mensd et thoro might heretofore have been _pronoimced , the court instead thereof pronounce a decree for a judicial separation ,
may which shall have the same force and the same consequences as a divorce a mensd et thoro heretofore had . The powers of the new
court enable it to pronounce decrees for—1 st . Nullity of marriage .
2 nd . Jactitation of marriage . 3 rd . [ Restitution of conjugal rights .
4 th . Judicial separation . 5 th . Dissolution of marriage .
A decree of the court for dissolution of marriage now has all the force of a judgment for divorce hitherto only to be obtained at great
cost in the House of Lords ; and actions for criminal conversation , which were a necessary preliminary to a divorce in the House of
Lords , are now wholly abolished . Hence the publication of the disreputable details of the conduct of the implicated parties is now
spared , which formerly brought so much scandal on society and
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), May 1, 1858, page 186, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01051858/page/42/
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