TY - JOUR
TI - Post-Austrian Divorce Law in Małopolska from 1918 to 1945. Selected Issues
AU - Zarzycki, Zdzisław
TI - Post-Austrian Divorce Law in Małopolska from 1918 to 1945. Selected Issues
AB - 
	Austrian divorce law was in force in the territory of the former region of Galicia until the end of 1945. The possibility of seeking a civil divorce was determined by the internal law of the church that the betrothed couple belonged to on the wedding day. Thus, divorce was outlawed both for people of the Roman Catholic confession [§ 111(1) ABGB] and for married couples where even one of the spouses confessed the Roman Catholic religion at the time of their wedding to a non-Catholic Christian [§ 111(2) ABGB]. Not even a religious conversion on the part of the Catholic after the date of the wedding could create the possibility for the couple to obtain a divorce. In practice, Catholic residents of Małopolska resorted to “divorce migration” to more lenient legal jurisdictions. In any case, a divorce dispute was adjudicated before common courts according to state procedural rules. Divorce proceedings could be initiated in two ways, i.e. by unilateral request of one of the spouses, or by joint request of both spouses. Divorce in Jewish marriage was subject to certain legal differences, and could also be initiated in two ways, i.e. by the voluntary, uncontested request of both spouses [§§ 133–134 ABGB] or by way of a divorce application filed by the husband [§ 135(1) ABGB]. In both cases, the procedures were aimed at terminating the marriage by the husband’s presenting the wife with a so-called bill of divorce. Different civil proceedings regulated divorce disputes in Krakow in the period described (1918- 1945), i.e. the Austrian proceedings until the end of 1932 and the Polish proceedings of 1930 thereafter. 

	* This publication is a modified and supplemented version of a portion of Chapter 2 of the Polish-language book by Z. Zarzycki, Rozwód w świetle akt Sądu Okręgowego w Krakowie w latach 1918–1945. Studium historyczno-prawne [Divorce in Light of the Krakow District Court files in 1918–1945. A Historical and Legal Study], Krakow 2010, pp. 126–164.
VL - Volume 12 (2019)
IS - Volume 12, Issue 3
PY - 2019
SN - 2084-4115
C1 - 2084-4131
SP - 319
EP - 359
DO - 10.4467/20844131KS.19.011.10932
UR - https://ejournals.eu/en/journal/kshpp/article/post-austrian-divorce-law-in-malopolska-from-1918-to-1945-selected-issues
KW - divorce
KW - grounds for divorce
KW - divorce proceedings
KW - divorce law
KW - Galicia
KW - General Government
KW - General Governorate
KW - marriage
KW - marriage law
KW - Austrian marriage law