All about Divorce

Summary: You may know that divorce is a legal termination of marriage according to law and some faiths. But do you know the grounds for divorce?

From its fairly unknown status in the past, divorce became a rampant issue as rates of divorces soared higher entering the 20th century. Media being the number one factor of its increase and the present rising trend of casual relationships and a more relaxed state of acceptances towards broken marriages are other factors.

In early civilizations, the term marriage may not have existed at least not literally, since it may have existed only as private agreement of the couple and those involved. No binding law would hold both and consider them as one than the mutual agreement. As Christianity gained more power the faith’s influences now reach the governments under their control and are now subject to their religious rules. Divorce was then strictly forbidden. But still those individuals not subject to Christianity are immune or perhaps ignorant to divorce.

It was during the 1500 Protestant Reformation Movement that divorce became a civil issue. The Protestant Group rejected in particular that the Catholic Church’s control over marriages and help the case move on to the court. As a result, divorce was now a subject tackled by the law upon judging of a fault, such as adultery, cruelty, or desertion. But to the rest of the Christian nations, divorce was still banned.

So what is divorce? Divorce is a legal termination of marriage according to law and some faiths. Another definition of divorce would be a complete or radical severance of closely connected things –in our subject that would be marriage. The divorce is often accompanied by decrees that sets new dealings between the two parties, including the partitioning of duties for the children, the splitting any paying for the existing properties, debts made during the conjugal process, spousal support if required and the eventual right of custody of the children. Divorce also would include the voiding of the tax exemptions claimed if there is a child (children) in the dispute.

Though some churches would operate on divorce whether legally or not, divorce nowadays is always a lawful action that is processed only on courts. There are modern divorce laws, though, that have inverted the involvement of courts. These divorce laws now tread issues of whether the divorce issues should be forwarded to the courts or have ‘triggers’ set to a specific arrangement, generally decided by one or both of the spouses. Some others are ante-nuptial and postnuptial agreements, and the right to obtain a divorce.

Though divorce has recently been a common occurrence, grounds for divorce can be a bit tricky. There are to grounds for divorce, ‘No Fault’ and ‘fault’. No Fault is a divorce ground that needs no proof that the spouse did something wrong though a set period of time is needed living apart before No Fault can be obtained. Incompatibility, irreconcilable differences or irremediable breakdown of the marriage can be grounds for no fault. Fault divorce is exactly the opposite. It needs proof and the traditional grounds for Fault divorces are cruelty, adultery, desertion and physical inability to engage in sexual intercourse.