No-Fault Divorce

Archive Report

Liberailization of Laws on Divorce

Departure From Adversary Court Proceedings

Divorce laws in the United States are beginning to reflect a growing realism about the actual causes of marital breakup. More than a dozen states have adopted “no-fault” divorce legislation under which the court does not so much dissolve a marriage as it gives formal and legal recognition to the fact that a marriage has already died. No-fault divorce replaces the traditional action by which one partner in a marriage sues for divorce, bringing charges of marital misbehavior against the other partner, who becomes the defendant and, if convicted, may bear certain penalties for his offense.

That is the familiar adversary procedure against which critics of divorce laws have railed for many decades. In actual practice, however, ...

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