The Economics of the Grounds for Divorce in Great Britain

Despite similarities in their socio-economic environments and the provision of identical legal grounds for divorce, England & Wales is dominated by fault divorce decrees whereas no-fault divorce dominates in Scotland. Indeed, during the past fifteen years, the shares of fault and no-fault divorce have increasingly diverged across these two regions. The paper proposes an explanation for this remarkable contrast based on cost incentives generated by procedural and legal interventions within the respective legal systems. In particular, the introduction of the Simplified Procedure in Scotland and the reduction in the time bar to divorce in England & Wales are key causal factors.