Divorce requiring the identification of the causes of marital breakdown (contested divorce)

If only one of the spouses petitions a court for the dissolution of their marriage and the other spouse does not agree to the divorce, this is a ‘divorce requiring the identification of the causes of marital breakdown’ (a contested divorce). In a contested divorce, the court conducting the divorce proceedings identifies whether the marriage has broken and what the causes of this are.

That is not to say that it deals with the subjective issue of who is to blame for the marital breakdown. The court mainly determines whether or not the spouses are complying with their statutory marital obligations (in particular, mutual respect, cohabitation, maintenance of the family unit, faithfulness, recognition of dignity, mutual support, etc.).