When Was Divorce Legal in France

With the return of the monarchy in France in 1816, divorce was completely abolished. Under Louis XVII, Roman Catholicism once again became the state religion and, according to his doctrine, judicial separation became the only option for unhappy couples. After the fall of the Bourbons in the July Revolution of 1830, several attempts were made to restore Napoleonic law. In 1831, 1832, 1833 and 1834, a divorce law was introduced and easily passed by the Chamber of Deputies. Each time, however, the Peerenkammer rejected even the much more restrictive law of 1803 that was proposed. The French aristocracy clearly rejected any return to revolution; Their vote against these divorce laws was as much a rejection of the revolutionary legacy as of the social effects of divorce (3). In the event of an attack on life, the party who has not filed for divorce agrees. Finally, either spouse can file for divorce without the consent of the other. If the other spouse continues to refuse the divorce, a judge decides on the case and sets the conditions. Only in this rare case it is necessary to prove the reasons for the divorce. As France is a European Union (EU) country, EU citizens can continue to live in France without permission after a divorce. With regard to the cessation of community life and the settlement of accounts between husband and wife, the spouses must apply to the notary appointed in the divorce decree.

In the case of a joint application, a list of the elements belonging to the estate must be submitted to the judge at the same time as the final application. Note: The spouse filing for divorce assumes responsibility for all applicable fees and must continue to meet his or her obligations to the children and the other spouse. The court rejects the application if one of the spouses can prove that the divorce may have serious moral or material consequences for the other spouse or the children. In both cases, the divorced spouse must initiate divorce proceedings with the judge through a lawyer. This application must specify how the spouse applying for divorce will meet his or her obligations towards the other spouse and the other children. Although this divorce law differed only slightly from those proposed by liberal legislators in the 1830s, men of all classes found it threatening because radical women demanded the right to divorce in 1848. The Wome n`s Club, chaired by Eugène Niboyet, met in early May 1848 to discuss the question of divorce and published articles in favour of divorce in its newspaper, La Voix des Femmes. Les Vésuviennes, a quasi-military organization of Parisian working women, also advocated a return to a conservative divorce law.

This was part of their plan for a new egalitarian marriage in which men and women would share domestic chores and public service. In a series of lectures at the Collège de France, Ernest Legouvé also advocated for the reintroduction of divorce. Legouvé, who is known for his support for women`s rights, argued that women in particular would benefit from divorce because the only alternative under the current law, separation, still left women under the control of their husbands. A few days after Crémieux presented his commission`s divorce bill to the Constituent Assembly, a group of 200 married women gathered in Plac e Vendôme to congratulate and thank him. Many critics have described divorce as a first step towards the political and social emancipation of French women and perhaps even the sexual freedom of women. Radical women and their male opponents saw divorce as one of many demands that could be the first step to completely changing gender relations, although such a conservative law was unlikely to bring about radical change. Even many socialists, especially Proudhon, debated whether women should be politically emancipated, but men across the political spectrum knew they did not want to promote women`s sexual liberation. They revived criticism of the 1792 law, some dating back to 1796, to show that divorce would lead to social unrest.

9. In April, Charivari posted several such jokes, one about a couple who divorced and remarried eleven times, and another about a man who had remarried so many times that he called his wife by his number — 14 — because he couldn`t remember her name. Critics have also warned that divorce would disrupt more marriages than legal separation; One cartoon showed a middle-class husband and his unattractive wife in their living room; The caption reads: “But what are you waiting for before you buy me a new hat?”, to which her husband replies: “Heavens! I await the decision of the House on divorce! Both parents are responsible for their children after divorce.