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Revision (Death and the Law)
Marriage in the past
Definition
Requirements for a valid marriage
Bars to marriage
Void marriage
Voidable marriage
Divorce in the past and today
Financial and childcare arrangements
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How was suicide treated before 1961?
What is the meaning of the term ignominious
burial?
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Which are main arguments of those who are
pro life or pro choice?
Choose an argument that best describes your
attitude towards abortion and write a short
argument defending your view!
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What is the meaning of the word euthanasia?
How can euthanasia be defined?
What is the difference between involuntary
and non-voluntary euthanasia?
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What is the significance of the Ruth Ellis case?
How did Lord Kennet organise his arguments
against the death penalty?
What are main arguments of retentionists?
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Although the global trend towards abolition
remained strong, 2012 saw a disappointing
resumption of executions in some countries.
The total number of confirmed executions
was 682, two more than in 2011. Executions
were recorded in 21 countries, the same
number as 2011. The number of countries
where death sentences were imposed fell
from 63 to 58.
Historically the English Common Law
required nothing for the celebration of a
marriage beyond the declared agreement
of the parties
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A marriage that takes legal effect without
licence or ceremony; “marriage by habit and
repute”
traces its roots to the English ecclesiastical
courts, which until 1753 recognized a kind
of informal marriage known as sponsalia per
verba de praesenti, which was entered into
without ceremony
Authorized in 11 states in the US as the full
equivalent of a ceremonial marriage
Also: consensual marriage, informal
marriage
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A marriage must be celebrated in the
presence of a clergyman of the Church of
England, or (since 1836) of a Registrar of
Marriages, or (since 1898) of an
‘authorized person’ – secular marriage
Two persons must be present as witnesses
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a voluntary union for life of one man and
one woman to the exclusion of all others
a contract based upon a voluntary private
agreement by a man and a woman to
become husband and wife
act or state of being joined as husband
and wife
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Monogamous (not necessarily one man
and one woman – same-sex marriage
made legal in 2002 in the Netherlands and
many countries since then)
For life (the intention of both parties must
be a union for life, regardless of the
availability of divorce)
Voluntary (as any other contract, it must
be entered into voluntarily, without
coercion)
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1) parties legally capable of contracting to
marry
2) mutual consent or agreement
3) an actual contract in the form
prescribed by law
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There are few regulations about starting a
marriage, while the law relating to the duties
of the parties in marriage, and to the
dissolution of marriage, is strict and complex.
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Youth (the age of consent; now 18, before
1969 it was 21)
Consanguinity or affinity (close blood
relation)
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If either party is under sixteen
If parties are related by blood:
1. Ascendants and descendants, e.g. parent
and child, grandparent and grandchild
2.Brother and sister, uncle and niece,
nephew and aunt
3. Persons who, by reason of the previous
marriage of one of them, are related –
changed by the Marriage Act of 1986
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A man may marry his stepmother, or a
woman her stepfather, provided that the
younger person is aged at least 21 and has
not at any time before reaching the age of
18 lived as a child of the family of the
older person
Marriage between in-laws also permitted
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A marriage celebrated between two
persons, one of whom is at the time validly
married, is void
The person who knowingly enters into
such a marriage is guilty of bigamy
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Marriages between parties who are not
male and female
A polygamous marriage entered into
outside England and Wales, if either party
was at the time domiciled in England and
Wales
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Valid initially, but may be set aside
because of:
1. Lack of due consent
Duress (coercion)
Mistake as to identity
Mental incapacity (unsound mind)
1. marriage not consummated because of incapacity
of either party or either party willfully refuses to
consummate the marriage
2. the respondent was suffering from a sexually
transmitted disease at the time of the marriage
3. the respondent was pregnant by another man at
the time of the marriage
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Like any other contract, marriage can be
avoided, varied or terminated in certain
circumstances. But marriage is not like other
contracts known to the law: the rules
governing marriage are not determined by
the contracting parties, but by the law of the
land.
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Marriage is a contract, but it is not like other
contracts because:
The parties cannot agree on the rules
governing marriage
The parties cannot agree what is to be
regarded as a breach of contract (because it
must be for life), nor what compensation
should be paid in case of such a breach (a
different type of contract regulates this:
prenuptial agreement)
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Ecclesiastical courts – crkveni sudovi
Registrar – matičar
Coercion (duress) – prisila, prinuda
Consent – pristanak, privola
Bars to marriage – zapreke braku
Consanguinity – krvno srodstvo
Dissolution of marriage – razvrgnuće braka
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Valid marriage – važeći brak
Void marriage – ništavan brak
Voidable marriage – poništiv (pobojan)
brak
Breach of contract – raskid ugovora
Prenuptial agreement – predbračni ugovor
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Read the text Marriage and list all the words
and phrases you do not understand
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Complete the following sentences:
A mariage entered into under duress is
________________.
Bars to marriage are youth and
________________.
A valid English marriage must be
monogamous, for life and _____________.
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Complete the following sentences from the
information in the text:
If either party is under sixteen ____________.
If a ceremony is performed _______________.
If one of the parties is sixteen or over but
under eighteen ____________________.
If the parents are divorced________________.
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The legal termination of marriage
Dissolution of marriage
Under English law, the only basis for divorce
is the irretrievable breakdown of marriage
The official request to a court to end a
marriage is called divorce petition
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Until 1969, most states required grounds for
divorce – the guilty party and the innocent
party
In England, divorce would be granted only to
the innocent party (petitioner) who could
prove that the other party (respondent)
committed a matrimonial offence
Largely based on the church (ecclesiastical)
law
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Adultery
Intolerable Cruelty
Desertion
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Both sides deliberately agreed that the
wrongful conduct would be claimed – even
untruthfully
Perjury – lying under oath
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Available since 1969
Pioneered in the US by the State of California
with the passage of the Family Law Act of
1969
The Act signed by Governor R. Reagan on
September 4, 1969 and became valid on
January 1, 1970
Abolished the old common law for divorce
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Less specific reasons, such as incompatibility
or irreconcilable differences
The court decides how to divide communal
property and who gets custody of the
children
If one of the spouses is financially dependent
on the other, the court will usually order the
other one to pay alimony (AmE) or
maintenance (BrE)
1.
2.
3.
Dissolving the marriage – the formal legal
process by which the marriage is ended
Financial arrangements – the process of
dividing up the marital assets and
agreeing on maintenance
Childcare arrangements – the process of
deciding who the children of the marriage
will live with (residency) and how much
contact the non-resident parent will have
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Petition for divorce
Acknowledgement of service
Obtain Decree Nisi
Obtain Decree Absolute (after six weeks)
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Apply for Ancillary Relief
Financial disclosure
Negotiation
Obtain financial court order
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Agreement
Application for residence and/or contact
Investigation
Residency court order
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In the UK, 40 % of marriages end in divorce
In the USA almost 50 %
Croatia – current statistics show that every
fifth marriages ends in divorce
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Dissolution of marriage – razvrgnuće braka
To file a divorce petition – podnijeti zahtjev
za razvod braka
Petitioner – tužitelj u brakorazvodnoj parnici
Decree of divorce – rješenje o rastavi braka
No fault divorce, uncontested divorce –
sporazumni razvod braka
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Decree Nisi – privremeno rješenje o razvodu
braka
Decree Absolute – pravomoćna presuda o
razvodu braka
Ancillary relief – financijska pomoć kod
razvoda
Financial disclosure – iznošenje podataka o
financijama
Fill in the blanks with the most appropriate word(s) from the list below:
grounds, separation, irretrievably, cohabitation, circumstances, respondent,
family, relief
An action for _________________ or divorce begins by filing a
signed and sworn statement with the court indicating that
sufficient grounds for ___________ from marriage exist. After
the complaint is filed, it is served on the _______________, who
has time to file an answer to the complaint. The _____________
court can issue a decree for divorce under a number of
_________________. The court will grant a divorce when the
marriage is _____________ broken. The parties can also get a
divorce when there is no reasonable likelihood that
_________________ will resume and the court is satisfied it
would not be harsh or contrary to the public interest to grant
the divorce on the ____________ requested.
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An action for SEPARATION or divorce begins by
filing a signed and sworn statement with the court
indicating that sufficient grounds for RELIEF from
marriage exist. After the complaint is filed, it is
served on the RESPONDENT, who has time to file an
answer to the complaint. The FAMILY court can
issue a decree for divorce under a number of
CIRCUMSTANCES. The court will grant a divorce
when the marriage is IRRETRIEVABLY broken. The
parties can also get a divorce when there is no
reasonable likelihood that COHABITATION will
resume and the court is satisfied it would not be
harsh or contrary to the public interest to grant the
divorce on the GROUNDS requested.