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