NULLITY JURISDICTION IN NORTHERN IRELAND
| Published date | 01 November 1956 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2230.1956.tb00384.x |
| Author | D. Colwyn Williams |
| Date | 01 November 1956 |
NULLITY JURISDICTION IN
NORTHERN IRELAND
TEE
law in regard to matrimonial disputes in Ireland, as in
England, was formerly administered exclusively by the ecclesia-
stical courts, at one time by Church dignitaries, and afterwards
under delegated powers by ecclesiastical lawyers.’ Their jurisdic-
tion extended to divorces
a
mensa et thoro,
suits for nullity of
marriage, for restitution of conjugal rights and for jactitation of
marriage. These courts had no power to dissolve
a
marriage, and
as they merely acted
in personam
their jurisdiction was founded
on
the residence of the parties
(or
at least on the residence of
the respondent) within the diocese in which the court had juris-
diction. They were restricted by the civil law to their prescribed
area of operation in England by the Statute of Citations
1581-1582
(28
Hen.
8,
c.
9)
which, however, did not apply to Ireland, but
Canon
54
of the Church of Ireland Canons of
1684
contained a
similar provision when it stated that the Ecclesiastical Courts
should pass sentences in matrimonial causes concerning
“
them
only that are then dwelling under. their jurisdiction.”
On
the disestablishment of the Church of Ireland all jurisdiction
of Ecclesiastical Courts in matrimonial matters was taken away
and transferred to a Court for Matrimonial Causes and Matters
by
the Matrimonial Causes and Marriage Law (Ireland) Act,
1870,
and section
18
of this Act (corresponding to section
22
of
the
English Act of
1857)
provided that in all suits and proceedings
the said court should proceed and act and give relief on principles
and rules which, in the opinion of the said court, should be as
nearly as may be conformable to the principles and rules on which
the Ecclesiastical Courts of Ireland had theretofore acted
and
given relief. These two sections remain unrepealed, and as regards
Northern Ireland the jurisdiction exercisable by virtue of the Act
of
1870
is now exercisable by the High Court of Justice in Northern
Ireland.
The Matrimonial Causes Act (Northern Ireland),
1989,
which
for the first time made it possible in Northern Ireland for a person
to obtain a divorce
a
vinculo matrimonii
by petition in the Queen’s
Bench Division
a
(on grounds identical to those contained in section
2
of the English Act of
1987),
by section
9
enumerated new grounds
for
decrees of nullity of marriage (identical to those enumerated
in section
7
of the English Act).
1
see the illurninntin judgment
of
Andrewe
L.C.J.
in
Mason
v.
Mason
[1944]
a
Since
1897
the Probate
and
Matrimonial Division has been nmalgameted with
669
N.I.
134
on
this sufject.
the
Queen’s Bench Division.
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