Divorce

Divorce (or the dis­so­lu­tion of mar­riage) is the ter­mi­na­tion of a mar­i­tal union, the can­cel­ing and/or reor­ga­niz­ing of the legal duties and respon­si­bil­i­ties of mar­riage, thus dis­solv­ing the bonds of mat­ri­mo­ny between a mar­ried cou­ple under the rule of law of the par­tic­u­lar coun­try and/or state. Divorce should not be con­fused with annul­ment, which declares the mar­riage null and void; with legal sep­a­ra­tion (a legal process by which a mar­ried cou­ple may for­mal­ize a de fac­to sep­a­ra­tion while remain­ing legal­ly mar­ried) or with de fac­to sep­a­ra­tion (a process where the spous­es infor­mal­ly stop cohab­it­ing). Divorce laws vary con­sid­er­ably around the world, but in most coun­tries it requires the sanc­tion of a court or oth­er author­i­ty in a legal process. The legal process of divorce may also involve issues of alimo­ny (spousal sup­port), child cus­tody, child vis­i­ta­tion / access, par­ent­ing time, child sup­port, dis­tri­b­u­tion of prop­er­ty, and divi­sion of debt. In most coun­tries monogamy is required by law, so divorce allows each for­mer part­ner to mar­ry anoth­er; where polyg­y­ny is legal but polyandry is not, divorce allows the woman to mar­ry a new hus­band. Divorce can be a stress­ful expe­ri­ence: affect­ing finances, liv­ing arrange­ments, house­hold jobs, sched­ules, par­ent­ing and the out­comes of chil­dren of the mar­riage as they face each stage of devel­op­ment from child­hood to adult­hood. If the fam­i­ly includes chil­dren, they may be deeply affect­ed. The only coun­tries that do not allow divorce are the Philip­pines and the Vat­i­can City, an eccle­si­as­ti­cal state, which has no pro­ce­dure for divorce. Coun­tries that have rel­a­tive­ly recent­ly legal­ized divorce are Italy (1970), Por­tu­gal (1975), Brazil (1977), Spain (1981), Argenti­na (1987), Paraguay (1991), Colom­bia (1991* ) Ire­land (1996), Chile (2004) and Mal­ta (2011).