Fault does not figure in Australian divorce law. The Family Law Act 1975 regulates divorce, allowing a decree nisi to be issued where a marriage has irretrievably broken down. Australian regulations do not inquire into the cause of breakdown, but simply seek evidence that the divorcing spouses have lived separately and apart for at least 12 months. However, it has not always been so and, if the backlash against womens interests accelerates, it may not remain so. Recently, mens rights groups such as the ‘Blackshirts’ and ‘Promise Keepers’ have added their weight to the backlash push for a return to those ‘family values’ epitomized by an earlier, ostensibly pre-feminist era. These groups trumpet the desirability of truly lifelong marriage and an end to ‘easy’ divorce. They favour marriage laws harking back to obsolete, fault-based judgements. This article revisits divorce premised on matrimonial offence. With the benefit of hindsight, the Acts adversarial operations and effects are re-examined to expose the vestiges of coverture inhering therein.
Anderson, C. (Member for Hume) (1959), Parliamentary speech, Matrimonial Causes Bill, 17 November, in Australia, House of Representatives, Parliamentary Debates,pp. 2740–2742. Canberra: Hansard .
3.
Austin, J.L. (1962) How To Do Things With Words: the William James Lectures delivered in Harvard University in 1955. London: Oxford University Press .
4.
Barwick, Sir G. (Attorney-General, Member for Parramatta) (1959), Parliamentary speeches, Matrimonial Causes Bill, 14 May and 17 November, in Australia, House of Representatives, Parliamentary Debates, pp. 2222–2238 and 2768–2777. Canberra: Hansard .
5.
Barwick, Sir G. (1961) ‘Some Aspects of the New Matrimonial Causes Act’ , Sydney Law Review3(3): 409–438 .
6.
Bernard, J. (1972) The Future of Marriage. London: Souvenir Press .
7.
Blackstone, Sir W. (1773) ‘Of Husband and Wife’, in Sir W. Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, 5th Edition, Vol. 1, Chapter 15. Oxford: Clarendon Press .
8.
Brook, H. (1997) ‘The Conjugal Body Politic: Marriage and the (Post) Modern Girl’, in G. Crowder, H. Manning, D.S. Mathieson, A. Parkin and L. Seabrooke (eds) Australasian Political Studies 1997: Proceedings of the 1997 APSA Conference, Vol. 1,pp. 83–97. Flinders: Flinders University, Department of Politics .
9.
Brook, H. (1998) ‘Marriage–Legislation and Debates’, in B. Caine, M. Gatens, E. Grahame, J. Larbalestier, S. Watson and E. Webby (eds) Australian Feminism: A Companion, pp. 454–456. Sydney: Oxford University Press .
10.
Brook, H. (2000) ‘How To Do Things With Sex’, in C. Stychin and D. Herman (eds) Sexuality in the Legal Arena, pp. 132–150. London: Athlone Press .
11.
Brook, H. (2002) ‘Stalemate: Rethinking the Politics of Marriage’ , Feminist Theory3(1): 45–56 .
12.
Burbury, The Hon. Sir S. (1963) ‘“Family Law”: Some Extra-Judicial Reflections Upon Two Years Judicial Experience of the Commonwealth Matrimonial Causes Act 1959’ , The Australian Law Journal, 36: 283–307 .
13.
Butler, J. (1990) Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. New York: Routledge .
14.
Calwell, A. (Member for Melbourne) (1959), Parliamentary speech, Matrimonial Causes Bill, 12 November, in Australia, House of Representatives, Parliamentary Debates,pp. 2694–2699. Canberra: Hansard .
15.
Coontz, S. (1992) The Way We Never Were: American Families and the Nostalgia Trap. New York: Basic Books .
16.
Costa, D. (Member for Banks) (1959), Parliamentary speech, Matrimonial Causes Bill, 12 November, in Australia, House of Representatives, Parliamentary Debates 1959,pp. 2683–2686. Canberra: Hansard .
17.
de Kretser, L. (2002) ‘Dads’ hate clan’, Herald Sun, 25 July: 3–3.
18.
Duthie, G. (Member for Wilmot) (1959), Parliamentary speech, Matrimonial Causes Bill, 17 November, in Australia, House of Representatives, Parliamentary Debates 1959, pp. 2735–2740. Canberra: Hansard .
19.
Ellard, J. (1999) ‘What’s Love Got to Do With It? Male Victims and the Family Court’, in K. Biber, T. Sear and D. Trudinger (eds) Playing the Man: New Approaches to Masculinity, pp. 161–170. Sydney: Pluto .
20.
Finlay, H.A. and Bailey-Harris, R.J. (1989) Family Law in Australia (4th edition). Sydney: Butterworths .
21.
Friedan, B. (1963) The Feminine Mystique. London: Victor Gollancz .
22.
Gatens, M. (1996) Imaginary Bodies: Ethics, Power and Corporeality. London: Routledge .
23.
Halbert, H. (Member for Moore) (1959) Parliamentary speech, Matrimonial Causes Bill, 12 November, in Australia, House of Representatives, Parliamentary Debates 1959, pp. 2711–2713, Canberra: Hansard .
24.
Hambly, D. and Turner, J.N. (1971) Cases and Materials on Australian Family Law. Sydney: The Law Book Company .
25.
Hamilton, C. (1981[1909]) Marriage as a Trade. London: The Women’s Press .
26.
Howson, P. (Member for Fawkner) (1959) Parliamentary speech, Matrimonial Causes Bill, 12 November, in Australia, House of Representatives, Parliamentary Debates 1959, pp. 2679–2683. Canberra: Hansard .
27.
Hughes, Sir W.K. (Member for Chisholm) (1959), Parliamentary speech, Matrimonial Causes Bill, 17 November, in Australia, House of Representatives, Parliamentary Debates 1959, pp. 2750–2754. Canberra: Hansard .
28.
Joske, P.E. (1969) Matrimonial Causes and Marriage Law and Practice of Australia and New Zealand (5th edition). Sydney: Butterworths .
29.
Koedt, A. (1973) ‘The Myth of the Vaginal Orgasm’, in A. Koedt, E. Levine and A. Rapone (eds) Radical Feminism, pp. 198–207. New York: Quadrange .
30.
Lively, P. (1994) ‘Sex without sex’ (C. Bantick interviews Penelope Lively), The Advertiser, 26 February: 22–23.
31.
MacDougall, D.J. (1966) ‘Proposals to Reform The Law of Condonation’ , Australian Law Journal, 39: 295–301 .
32.
Martin, R. (1951) What Every Married Woman Should Know. Sydney: World Wide Mail Order .
33.
National Organization for Women (NOW) (2003), Information about the Promise Keepers, accessed 20 August 2003. Available: http://www.now.org/issues/right/pk.html
34.
Parker, A. and Sedgwick, E.K. (1995) ‘Introduction: Performativity and Performance’, in A. Parker and E.K. Sedgwick (eds) Performativity and Performance, pp. 1–18. New York: Routledge .
35.
Parker, S., Parkinson, P. and Behrens, J. (1994) Australian Family Law in Context: Commentary and Materials. Sydney: The Law Book Company Limited .
36.
Promise Keepers (2003) ‘Promise Keepers: Men of Integrity’ (sic), official website, accessed 20 August 2003. Available: http://www.promisekeepers.org/
37.
Scutt, J. A. (1995) ‘Judicial Bias or Legal Bias? Battery, Women and the Law’ , Journal of Australian Studies43: 130–143 .
Selby, D. M. (1960) ‘Cruelty as a Matrimonial Offence’ , Sydney Law Review1(2): 237–245 .
40.
Sheridan, S. (2002) Who Was That Woman? The Australian Women’s Weekly in the Postwar Years. Sydney: UNSW Press .
41.
Smart, C. (1984) The Ties That Bind: Law, Marriage and the Reproduction of Patriarchal Relations. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul .
42.
Spender, D. (ed.) (1994) Weddings and Wives. Ringwood, Victoria: Penguin .
43.
Stewart, F. (Member for Lang) (1959), Parliamentary speech, Matrimonial Causes Bill, 12 November, in Australia, House of Representatives, Parliamentary Debates 1959, pp. 2707–2711. Canberra: Hansard .
44.
Sun-Herald (1959) ‘Blaming the Shrew’, 4 October: 21–21.
45.
Sydney Morning Herald (1959a) ‘Lawyers Divided On New Federal Divorce Legislation’, 16 May: 4–4.
46.
Sydney Morning Herald (1959b) ‘Divorce Not Made Easier’, 18 November: 21–21.
47.
Tarlo, H. (1963) ‘Intention and Insanity in Divorce Law’ , The Australian Law Journal37: 3–19 .
48.
Ward, E. (Member for East Sydney) (1959), Parliamentary speech, Matrimonial Causes Bill, 12 November, in Australia, House of Representatives, Parliamentary Debates 1959, pp. 2703–2706. Canberra: Hansard .
49.
Warnock, G.J. (1973) ‘Some Types of Performative Utterance’, in Sir I. Berlin, L.W. Forguson, D.F. Pears, G. Pitcher, J.R. Searle, P.F. Strawson and G.J. Warnock, Essays on J.L. Austin. London: Oxford at the Clarendon Press .
50.
Westphalen, L. (2002) Deadly Lives: Palimpsests in Aboriginal Women’s Life-Histories. PhD Thesis (unpublished), Women’s Studies, Flinders University of South Australia.
51.
Wheeler, R. (Member for Mitchell) (1959), Parliamentary speech, Matrimonial Causes Bill, 12 November, in Australia, House of Representatives, Parliamentary Debates 1959, pp. 2691–2694. Canberra: Hansard .
52.
Winton, F.R. and Bayliss, L.E. (1949) Human Physiology (3rd edition). London: J. & A. Churchill .
