Part 1 of Essay
Divorce is a judicially administered process that legally terminates a marriage and permits both to remarry. Before 1857 in Britain, freedom to remarry could be obtained only by an act of Parliament following a separation decree given by an ecclesiastical court on the basis of some wrong, such as adultery or abandonment, ....

Part 2 of Essay
.... courts. The realities of divorce litigation in the United States were actually quite different from the legal requirements. In response to social pressures, trial judges and lawyers often permitted spouses to terminate their marriages with out proving grounds if both parties wanted the divorce. Such divorces were obtained by having the plaintiff in effect lie about the grounds without objection from the defendant. A divorce reform movement took place in the early 1970's in the United Kingdom and ....