Marriage breakdown in divorce legislation : a comparative study

Abstract

It is a platitude to state that marriage tends to break down from time to time, being as it is founded on a personal relationship between two individuals with separate personalities which is subject to all the stresses and strains that fluctuations of physical and mental health, as well as a whole range of social pressures, bring to bear upon it. It is not the aim of this thesis to treat the problem of marriage breakdown exhaustively on the philosophical, moral or social planes. Nor is it intended to consider it on the basis of lex forenda. The present study will abstain from making value judgements and will concentrate on the overriding objective of stating the lex lata embodied in contemporary divorce legislation relating to the breakdown of marriage in a substantially large number of countries.