Divorce Law in the United States This paper will

First adopted in California in 1970, no-fault divorce is a relatively recent development. It was adopted chiefly because changes in society made the old system of fault irrelevant and inequitable. Under the old system, divorce would only be granted if one of the spouses could prove that the other had been guilty of one of a number offenses against the marriage. The most common offense, of course, was adultery. This system had originated in the English ecclesiastical courts, which handled divorces in England. Since there were no ecclesiastical courts in the United States, legislatures were forced to enact divorce laws and civil courts were forced to adjudicate divorce proceedings. Both institutions relied upon precedents established by the English ecclesiastical courts, which resulted in the requirement of showing fault.

Most states provided only three grounds for divorce: adultery, cruelty, and desertion. Until 1966, adultery was the only ground for divorce in New Yo

. . .
n and how it was acquired. The respective property of each spouse belongs to him or her throughout the marriage and each controls their own property in the normal fashion. At divorce, however, the court may transfer title to the other spouse in order to effect an equitable distribution. To date, fourteen states have adopted some form of the "kitchen sink" system. Some of the states have limited the discretion of the court in transferring property. For instance, the Montana Supreme Court has suggested that the system should only include property acquired during the marriage and Oregon applies the system to long marriages only, dividing only property acquired the marriage in short marriages. Most of the states have adopted a marital property system, which prevents courts from dividing all of the property owned by the spouses at divorce. Usually, property acquired before the marriage is exempted from division, as is that acquired through gift or inheritance. Some of the states hold that an equal division of the property is presumptively equitable. However, none of the states require an equal division. Some states have adopted a system which is a hybrid of the "kitchen sink" and marital property systems. As a gener
. . .

Some common words found in the essay are:
Twentieth Century, Act UMDA, Child Custody, No-Fault Divorce, Supreme Court, Nineteenth Century, Stat Ann, Law United, Law Review, community property, Code Ann, no-fault divorce, ann º, marital property, stat ann, joint custody, property division, child custody, law review, stat ann º, divorce law, code ann º, property acquired marriage, divorce law united, rev stat ann,
Approximate Word count = 4665
Approximate Pages = 19 (250 words per page)

More Essays on Divorce Law in the United States This paper will