A marriage may be dissolved if marital cohabitation has profoundly, permanently and irreparably broken down and there is no expectation that it will be re-established.
Even if marital cohabitation has broken down, a court will not dissolve a marriage if divorce would be contrary to the interests of a minor child who does not have legal capacity and whose parents are the two spouses who are divorcing, provided that there is a particular reason for this. Nor will the court dissolve a marriage if divorce would be contrary to the interests of the spouse who has not contributed to the breakdown of the marriage but would suffer serious detriment linked to their special circumstances (e.g. the spouse’s advanced age, sickness requiring another person’s assistance, or increased living costs). This does not apply to a marriage where the spouses have been separated for at least 3 years.
A court may grant a divorce only if it is so petitioned by one of the spouses or by both of them together.
The court with due jurisdiction to conduct divorce proceedings is the local court in whose judicial district the spouses have or had their last place of cohabitation in the Czech Republic, provided that at least one of the spouses lives in the district of that court. If there is no such court, the ordinary court of the spouse who has not applied for the initiation of proceedings has jurisdiction. If that court cannot be identified either, the ordinary court of the spouse applying for the initiation of proceedings has jurisdiction.
A distinction is made between a divorce requiring identification of the causes of marital breakdown (a contested divorce) and a divorce not requiring identification of the causes of breakdown (an uncontested divorce).