Clause 1 - Power to refuse decree absolute if steps not taken to dissolve religious marriage
Divorce (Religious Marriages) Bill
10:30 am
Mr Andrew Dismore (Hendon, Labour)
I welcome you to the Chair, Mr. Conway, and hope that your duties will not prove too onerous this morning.
The purpose of the clause is to remedy a disadvantage suffered by Jewish men and women who are prevented from remarrying because of the refusal of their partners to grant or accept a religious divorce, known in Hebrew as a get. The Jewish laws on marriage and divorce are biblical and not easily changed. In Jewish law, marriage and divorce are consensual processes, and an individual cannot be married or divorced against his or her will. That creates a problem in cases in which one party seeks to end the marriage and the other refuses to grant or receive a divorce.
For a civil divorce to be effective in Jewish law, a get—a consensual divorce in which mutual co-operation between the parties is needed—must be obtained. The husband has to go before a Beth Din court—a court in Jewish law—for a get and deliver it to his wife, and she is required to accept it. If he does not do so, the wife cannot remarry in Jewish law, although the husband may still be able to do so.
Jewish women who want to conduct their family relationships within the framework of their religious beliefs have virtually no power to compel a reluctant husband to grant them a get. Without a get, a divorcee who has a child by a subsequent partner is defined as an adulteress under Jewish law and the children are illegitimate for future generations. If a wife refuses to accept a husband's get, he does not suffer from the same disadvantages, so he can hold his wife to ransom, demanding money, property or other rights such as custody or reduced child maintenance in return for the get.
The Bill would enable a court to require the dissolution of a religious marriage before granting a civil divorce. The power is discretionary, but would provide a lever whereby pressure could be brought on the husband to agree to a get. New section 10A(1) refers to other prescribed religious usages, to be prescribed by the Lord Chancellor. It may have implications for Muslim marriages, but there has been no pressure from that community so far for similar provisions; the Bill is aimed primarily at the problems of Jewish divorce.