CHANGED WORLD

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 125, 29 May 1930, Page 11

CHANGED WORLD

THE LAW AND DIVORCE

"INTERESTS OF MORALITY"

(From "The Post's" Representative.) LONDON, 24th April. Sir William Jowitt, K.G., the Attor-ney-General, has appeared as counsel in a divorce case—Apted v. Apted and Bliss—to argue a difficult point that the case has raised. Iv the course of his argument he said ho felfo difficulty in suggesting exactly liow to apply the canon which had been often referred to in the old clays, and which must be present in the minds of everybody in these days —the general interests of morality. In was extraordinarily difficult to decide how best to servo the general interests of morality in this class of case. Lord- Merrivalc, the President, remarked that one very great difficulty at the present time arose from the fact that the form of the State had been totally altered. ' Publicity had been a little restricted in that Court upon the decision of' the Legislature. There was, howevei-, a keen attention to the current events of the day which brought home the kind of facts which were in question in those .cases to the minds of the people. The world had changed since Lord Penzanee laid down canons of judicial conduct in 1859. Sir William Jowitt: "It is amazing, as one casts one's mind back, to note how public opinion and outlook have changed, even since I have Ireen at the Bar in the last twenty-five years." Lord Merrivale: "The*^ war has intervened." . '. ■ Sir William: "Yes. In .the last twenty years we have lived over a span which is really more like forty years." NO RIGID RULES. Having dealt with a number of judgments, Sir' William went on: "The conclusion of the whole matter really comes to this: There are no rigid rules, no rigid compartments into which a case has to fall in order to justify the exercise of discretion. Each case must be considered having regard to all the relevant circumstances— the welfare of the persons concerned and general interests of morality. Perhaps all one can say with regard to principles to-day is that there are two negative principles which would, except in exceptional circumstances, be followed. : "First of all; if. the petitioner's own adultery has conduced to the adultery of the respondent, it is probable that discretion would not be exercised. Secondly, if there has. been a deliberate suppression of the facts, the Court would be reluctant to exercise the dis-, cretion which even then it would have. "Apart from that I hope that the principle which your Lordship has laid down will be regarded as one of overriding importance—the position of the children of the marriage, and the possibility that there might be illegitimate children born if an unlawful union were allowed to continue. ■ The consequence to children of- being born otherwise than in wedlock is such a serious matter that the Court in all these eases, in the interests of the children, 1 would strain so as to make it possible that the union might be regularised. . • ■ ■

INTERESTS OF MORALITY. / "In addition to the children—who, I hope, will always be regarded' as the first' matter of importance—there is the question'of the spouses themselves, and the possibility of-them ever coming together again. "In thte ease before the Court the two spouses parted in the sense of husband and wife in 1914, and there was the question of the probability and desirability of one of the spouses marrying a third party.1 There is the question of whether, in the interests of morality, irregular unions should continue." Beferring to the difficulties of the King's Proctor in carrying out his duties^ and in knowing what facts he was to inquire into, the AttorneyGeneral said that the position had become more difficult since the practice of hearing divorce cases at assizes in the provinces. Matters were sometimes left in so vague a'state, so far as the King's Proctor was concerned, that his task was rendered: almost impossible.