This paper will discuss the major aspects of divorce law in the United States. The first part of the paper will discuss the advent of no-fault divorce and its effects on divorcing couples. The second part of the paper will examine the evolution of the law concerning property division. The third part of the paper will look at some of the issues involved in child custody. And the last part of the paper will very briefly discuss divorce mediation.
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 York, a situation which created an abundance of work for private investigators. Gradually, most states, including New York, began adopting other grounds for divorce, such as criminal convictions, insanity, and drug addiction. Cruelty was usually defined as bodily harm or reasonable apprehension of bodily harm endangering life, limb, of health and rendering cohabitation unsafe or improper. Most states also recognized mental cruelty as grounds for divorce, describing it as verbal and physical abuse, abuse of th...