Matrimonial Causes Act 1937

Matrimonial Causes Act 1937
Act of Parliament
Long titleAn Act to amend the law relating to marriage and divorce.
Citation1 Edw. 8. & 1 Geo. 6. c. 57
Introduced byA. P. Herbert (Commons)
Dates
Royal assent30 July 1937[1]
Commencement1 January 1938
Other legislation
Amends
Text of statute as originally enacted

The Matrimonial Causes Act 1937 (1 Edw. 8. & 1 Geo. 6. c. 57) is a law on divorce in the United Kingdom. It extended the grounds for divorce, which until then only included adultery, to include unlawful desertion for three years or more, cruelty, and incurable insanity, incest or sodomy.[2]

Apart from the Roman Catholic Church, Church of England and its associated Mothers' Union, there was broad support for divorce law liberalisation, as this legislation had not been significantly amended since the passage of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1857, when adjudication had been removed from church courts and placed before secular courts.

  1. ^ "Royal Assent". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). Vol. 326. House of Commons. 30 July 1937. col. 3535–3537.
  2. ^ "Matrimonial Causes Act 1937: A Lesson in the Art of Compromise | Oxford Journal of Legal Studies | Oxford Academic". Academic.oup.com. 1 July 1993. Retrieved 7 February 2018.