REPORTS OF COMMITTEES
| Published date | 01 January 1967 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2230.1967.tb01139.x |
| Date | 01 January 1967 |
| Author | Alexander Irvine |
REPORTS
OF
COMMITTEES
REPORT
OF
THE
MORTIMEB
GROUP
ON
DIVORCE
LAW
THIS
report
of
a group appointed by the Archbishop of Canterbury,
Dr.
Ramsey, in January
1964,
under the chairmanship
of
the Bishop
of Exeter, Dr. Mortimer, is a bold and reflective document. Among
its many interesting recommendations the most dramatic proposal
is
that the breakdown
of
marriage should become the only basis
of
divorce, replacing matrimonial offences.
No
longer would proof
of a matrimonial offence be the essential pre-condition of release
from marriage. Where a marriage breaks down
it
is
wrong
that we
must inevitably think in terms of a guilty party, and an innocent
party who is entitled to a divorce.
A
breakdown principle reveals
divorce as
cc
what in essence
it
is-not a reward for marital virtue
on
the one side and a penalty for marital delinquency
on
the
other
. .
.;
but a defeat for both, a failure of the marital two-in-
oneship
’
in which both its members, however unequal their
responsibility, are inevitably involved together.”
The report is in sharp contrast to that of the Royal Commission
on
Marriage and DivorceY4 which was condemned by the divorce
law reformers as a fascinating reflection
of
official humbug. The
false assumptions
on
which the Royal Commission proceeded were
exposed by Professor
0.
R. McGregor,6 who substantiated the case
that a Commission had been appointed which was not competent to
investigate and which had
“
ignored a century’s development of
the social sciences.” McGregor rightly deplored that not one
Commissioner had expert knowledge of
“
the considerable body of
modern sociological research
on
the causes and social consequences
of divorce and the implications of changing attitudes to marriage.”
And
so
the sociological considerations brought before the Mortimer
Group
by
Professor MacRae make pleasing reading.8 The Royal
1
Putting Asunder:
A
Divorce Law for Contemporary Society
(Society for
Promoting Christian Knowledge,
10s.
6d.).
*
It proposes,
for
example, that a
court
should
adjourn
divorce hearings where
it is not satisfied that
the
resources
of
reconciliation have been exhausted
(at pp.
22-23
and
64);
that
a
court should dismiss a petition,
even
though
it
is satisfied that
a
marriage
has
broken down,
if
it considers that
a
decree
would be against the public interest because of the conduct
of
the petitioner
(at pp.
21
and
62-63);
and that a court should withhold
a
decree until it
is
satided with the financial provision made for. the dependent
spouse
and
any
children of the marriage (at pp.
20,
48
and
7P76).
The Group also recom-
mends more GovernmeEt financial backing to reconciliation agencies (at p.
22;
and
see
Appendix
E,
Matrimonial Reconciliation,” at pp.
160-161).
3
Ibid.
at p.
18.
4
Cmd.
9678.
5
Divorce
in
England,
1967.
6
Ibid.
7
Ibid.
8
Appendix
F,
pp.
169-169.
72
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