Divorce in the UK prior to 1857 was legally impossible - unless you were extremely wealthy and could afford to have a private Act of
Parliament passed, or a
decree made by the church. From 1857 onwards, courts could grant divorce,
adultery being the only grounds. Neither party could remarry.
Similar laws were introduced in Australia. Eventually, the fact that adultery was often staged to obtain a divorce was acknowledged, and other reasons could be given, such as desertion, cruelty,
insanity and
imprisonment. In 1959, the State's forfeited their respective legislation regarding divorce to the Federal Government, so one law applied everywhere. The Matrimonial Causes Act 1959 (Cwlth) was widely criticised because all grounds for divorce required one
spouse to prove fault against the other. Of course, this may not have been the case at all but nobody wanted to be the party at fault, even if it expediated the process, because being at fault would affect
custody and property issues.
The Family Law Act 1975
The Family Law Act 1975 (Cwlth) removed all the previous grounds for divorce, eliminated the concept of fault and introduced the single ground of 'irretrievable breakdown of marriage,' to be shown by the parties living 'separately and apart' for twelve months. This was seen as fairer and more dignified than assigning blame to one party. There have been many reforms to the Act, and ideally it is still a 'no fault' proceeding, but
domestic violence can affect property allocation, custody and access in a big way.
Reforms made to this Act 20 years since its introduction make the divorce process even simpler. An application to the
Family Court for a divorce can be made by filling out a two page form, which is processed in six weeks. A court will recommend that all parties should undergo counselling, where settlements can be made without resorting to a full-blown court process; 90% of disputes are settled at this stage. If counselling fails the case goes to court. If there is no opposition, the whole hearing can be over in a matter of minutes. The judge grants a decree
nisi, which becomes a decree
absolute one month after.