1. In this article, the writer first examines the discussions on the matter of the law concerning divorce presented by both the Church of England and the Roman Catholic Chunrch in the Royal Commission (Morton Commission) in 1952, and then shows why they opposed adding the hopeless breakdown of marriage as a judicial ground for divorce. The writer approaches the subject from the viewpoint of the sociology of law. This work is a primary step to the investigation into the process of the formation of the Divorce Reform Act 1969.
2. At that time, both Churches were mostly concerned with how the increasing divorce rate could be reduced. They, therefore, asserted: “Whether explicitly on Christian ground or simply on grounds of national well-being, the [legal] principle [on marriage] should be to adhere as far as possible to Christian standard”.
3. In the memorandum submitted to the Commission, the Church of England, in opposing the addition of the hopeless breakdown of marriage as a judicial ground for divorce, proclaimed as follows: “The purpose of the law must be to encourage the true principle of life-long marriage and to inculcate it into the mind of citizen”. And the law can discharge that function efficiently as long as the “doctrine of matrimonial offence” is maintained. From this point of view, they opposed adopting the “doctrine of breakdown of marriage”. They were afraid that the adoption of this doctrine would suggest that marriage was not a life-long union. In short they were afraid that this doctrine would deprive law of “moral incentive”.
4. The witness of the Roman Catholic Church, on the other hand, agreed with the suggestion, made by a Commissioner, that the breakdown of marriage should be the
only judicial ground for divorce. This was not because they understood that the reform based on the suggestion was the judicial acceptance of the social reality of marriage breakdown, but because the reform, by reducing the judicial ground for divorce, would make a divorce less frequent. The Roman Catholic Church was convinced that people would be able to overcome their matrimonial difficulties if divorce were made very difficult to obtain.
5. The writer concludes that both Churches almost overlooked that a stringent law which was too oblivious of human experience was broken anomalies and concessions, flouted by widespread by defeat and deceit, and then failed to help morality and promote stability of the institution of marriage and family.
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