잉글랜드 이혼법 개혁의 성격, 1909-1937

The purpose of this article is to trace back the divorce law reform in England(1909-1937) and to find out the nature of the course. It is common to take a series of events, that includes constitution of ‘Royal Commission on Divorce and Matrimonial Causes’ in 1909, publication of the Commission’s Report, several attempts to legislate suggestions of the report, and enactment of ‘Matrimonial Causes Act’ in 1923 and in 1937, as a phase of English divorce law development. However, there has been diverse evaluations on the changes that occurred during this period. And the various opinions can be classified into two. One is that divorce law amendment of the early 20th century was to enlarge individual’s liberty and to enhance one’s happiness. The other is that the core of law reform was the interest not of individual but of community. That is to say, the intention to strengthen marriage and to stabilize society motivated the reform and justified the revision of divorce law. This article seeks to reconstitute the progress of english divorce law reform in the early 20th century, keeping these differences of the analyses. It was Lord Gorell (John Gorell Barnes) who launched divorce law reform at the beginning of the 20th century. The Royal Commission was appointed in 1909 through Lord Gorell’s effort. And the commissioners presented the final report in 1912 which dealt with cost of divorce suit, jurisdiction of divorce law, grounds for divorce, sexual inequality in matrimonial causes, publication of judicial proceedings, and so on. Among these issues, extension of grounds for divorce was the only subject that all the commissioners did not consent. The suggestions of the Commission were added to the law by a series of legislations that spreaded over a quarter of a century. By Administration of Justice Act (in 1920), County Court could exercise jurisdiction over divorce cases. Matrimonial Causes Act (in 1923) guaranteed sexual equality in divorce suit, and now a woman could divorce her husband by proving his adultery only. And Regulation of Reports Act (in 1926) gave judges rights to hinder publication of details of on-going cases. But extension of divorce grounds that had troubled Royal Commission remained unsolved for a while thereafter. It was not until 1937 that the recommendation to expand grounds for divorce was accepted when Herbert’s ‘Marriage Bill’ became new ‘Matrimonial Causes Act’. Divorce law reform in the 1920s and 1930s could be seen as connected to the trend of enlargement of liberty. And one can mistake the intension of divorce law amendments for ‘liberalization’ of divorce especially when noting the increase of divorce rate. However, the details of the process have shown that reformers had traditional standpoint on marriage and family. Also they wanted to redress divorce problem in order to strengthen the marriage institution and to keep social stability and public morality. In short, the conservativeness led divorce law reform and at the same time justified the modification. The new frame that had been made in such process was to regulate marriage and divorce in England for more than 30 years without any considerable change.