Spanish Divorce Law of 1932
스페인 이혼법 (1932)
The first divorce law in Spanish history, passed by the Second Republic on 25 February 1932 and promulgated on 2 March. Following Article 43 of the 1931 constitution, it allowed divorce by mutual consent or at one spouse’s request on just cause, treating the sexes as equally as possible. The Francoist side suspended it in 1938 and repealed it on 23 September 1939; divorce was not recognised again until 1981.
In depth
Before the Spanish Divorce Law, Article 52 of the Civil Code of 1889 allowed a marriage to be dissolved only by the death of a spouse. Article 43 of the 1931 constitution for the first time founded marriage on equal rights for both sexes and allowed it to be dissolved by mutual consent or at the request of either spouse on just cause. Justice Minister Álvaro de Albornoz introduced the bill on 4 December 1931, and the government linked it to the secularisation of the state.
Deputies of the Catholic and conservative parties opposed it on the Church’s doctrine of indissoluble marriage and used filibustering, repeatedly denying the chamber a quorum. Supporters replied that marriage could rest only on love and that, once love was gone, spouses needed legal means to dissolve the bond, and they hailed the law as one of the Republic’s laws that would most free women from the “tyranny” of the monarchy. It was finally passed on 25 February 1932 by 260 votes to 23, published in the Gaceta de Madrid on 11 March and reprinted the next day with its misprints corrected.
Article 1. Divorce decreed by a final judgment of the civil courts dissolves the marriage, whatever the form and date of its celebration.
Article 2. There shall be grounds for divorce when both spouses request it by common agreement, or one of them for one of the causes laid down in this Law, always subject to its provisions.
Artículo 1.° El divorcio decretado por sentencia firme por los Tribunales civiles disuelve el matrimonio, cualesquiera que hubieran sido la forma y la fecha de su celebración.
Artículo 2.° Habrá lugar al divorcio, cuando lo pidan ambos cónyuges de común acuerdo, o uno de ellos por alguna de las causas determinadas en esta Ley, siempre con sujeción a lo que en ella se dispone.
The core of the law was Article 2, which introduced divorce “by mutual consent”, unknown to the Civil Code of 1889. Article 3 listed the causes of divorce, among them adultery not consented to, a year’s abandonment, attempts on life and ill-treatment, and three years’ separation, treating both spouses as equally as possible, and the whole law sought to protect women, who stood to lose more socially by divorce. During the Civil War the Francoist side suspended it in the territory it held on 2 March 1938 and repealed it by a law of 23 September 1939. Divorce was recognised again after Franco’s death, by the law of 1981.