Namibia’s New Divorce Philosophy is Both Revolutionary and Overdue
Lord Alfred Denning, a legendary English judge, speaking in 1967 on reform to the law of divorce, stated: “We should do everything of course to maintain the marriage if we can, but if it be irretrievably broken down, let the empty shell be buried and done away with, with as much quietness and lack of […] The post Namibia’s New Divorce Philosophy is Both Revolutionary and Overdue appeared first on The Namibian .
Lord Alfred Denning, a legendary English judge, speaking in 1967 on reform to the law of divorce, stated: “We should do everything of course to maintain the marriage if we can, but if it be irretrievably broken down, let the empty shell be buried and done away with, with as much quietness and lack of bitterness and lack of humiliation as possible.”
On the other hand, the London Daily Telegraph, reporting on the changing socio-legal nature of marriage in 1983, stated: “Marriage as an institution is in a low state. With divorces running close to 200 000 a year, it is no longer till death do us part.”
To understand the frustration evident in the comments by Lord Denning and the Daily Telegraph, one need only look at the original institution of marriage compared to society’s present views on its sanctity.
Roman law was based on the principle of rebelum matrimonium, involving freedom of divorce by mutual consent or unilateral repudiation.
Divorce ought to have been a private matter of disassociation. Some authors state that in the early Middle Ages, the formation and dissolution of marriage concerned none but the parties and the families.
The longstanding call for law reform to make the process less cumbersome can be better understood by the socio-economic and cultural changes marriage has on couples’ lives.
