Friday, April 23, 2010

Uniform Marriage and Divorce Act

When no-fault divorce is mentioned it is hard not to bring up the Uniform Marriage and Divorce Act. This act was established in 1970. The Uniform Marriage and Divorce Act is seen in 8 states across the United States. These states include: Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Kentucky, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana and Washington (Muse). In simple terms The Uniform Marriage and Divorce Act "proposed that grounds for divorce would not necessitate one person being at fault. It also proposed that divorces must be recognized by all states so long as couples had met requirements of the state in which the divorce was granted" (associatedcontent). This was a great turn in events because before this act was established a couple/person wanting a divorce would have to have proof that there was wrongful acts. When this act was being formed it took many drafts and proposals. There were two committees that came together to write this act. One of the committees was an appointed group of the National Conference of Commissioners of Uniform State Laws (NCCUSL) and the second groups was the American Bar Association's Family Law Section (). It has been 40 years now that this act was established and legislatures are still making changes and adding sub-sections to it. A lot of the additions are concerning children and property. Even though only a handful of states have the Uniform Marriage and Divorce Act, the other states have rules and laws concerning no-fault divorces. Divorce is a tricky subject and legislatures are still coming up with laws for it, but most of them have been shot down. In fact "as of 2008, some 80 amendments have been proposed to give the U.S. Congress power to regulate divorce, but to date all have failed" (associatedcontent).
The Uniform Marriage and Divorce Act: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uniform/vol9.html

No comments:

Post a Comment