Is there any civil right to reply to an assertion of irretrievable breakdown? David Burrows investigates
- The reforms to the divorce process have opened up the question of whether a spouse or civil partner responding to an assertion of irretrievable breakdown has the ability to challenge it on a human rights basis.
The reforms to the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 (MCA 1973) on divorce—parallel reforms for civil partnership dissolution are in the Civil Partnership Act 2004 (CPA 2004)—came into force on 6 April 2022 (for an introduction to the new law, see ‘Blame-free divorce, but how fair? Pt 1’ NLJ, 4 March 2022, p13). The aim of the short Divorce, Dissolution and Separation Act 2020 which brought in the reforms is to remove blame from the process. Though reformers dislike it being said, the new s 1, MCA 1973 and ss 37A and 44, CPA 2004 represent divorce or civil partnership dissolution on demand (and, subject to what follows, these provisions are mostly none the worse for that).
In the case of divorce,
