Jersey backs easier and quicker divorce

Couples in Jersey will be able to apply for a divorce on their wedding day without giving any reason under measures backed by the island’s States Assembly.

Members unanimously approved the Draft Marriage and Civil Partnership (Dissolution and Separation) (Jersey) Law that will allow ‘no fault’ divorce, deny the right of a spouse to contest an application, and abolish the three-year bar to applying for a divorce.

The Christian Institute has long argued that abolishing fault and separation as grounds for divorce and allowing people to complete the process quickly leaves spouses with little time to work through difficulties and seek reconciliation.

Liberalisation

The new law will allow either partner to apply for a divorce and ends the requirement to cite grounds such as adultery or desertion.

It also allows couples “to apply for dissolution at any time following the formation of their marriage”. Spouses will no longer be able to seek to save their marriage by contesting the claim that it has broken down.

Ahead of the debate and vote, the Jersey Government explained that the law had been “rewritten to modern drafting standards and now includes provision for civil partnerships so that both types of union are dealt with in the same place”.

Deputy Mary Le Hegarat, Minister for Justice and Home Affairs, hailed the changes as a “long overdue modernisation” of Jersey’s marriage and family law.

Human cost

Since 2022, couples in England and Wales have been allowed to divorce in six months and a spouse cannot contest the decision.

In an article in the Law Society Gazette, senior family lawyer James Grigg warned last year that the Divorce, Dissolution and Separation Act had resulted in “unintended consequences” and “moved blame further along” the legal process.

He explained: “Previously, being able to apportion blame at the start of the process by citing a spouse’s adultery or unreasonable behaviour was important to many people on a psychological level, serving as a therapeutic step in the healing process.

“The removal of fault in the divorce regime, as a legal concept, is straightforward. However, removing it from the human psyche is far more complicated.”