ABSTRACT
Lord Devlin, in a public lecture upon morals and the law of marriage, raised the question: ‘What then is the divorce court really doing when it pronounces a decree of divorce?’ The judge answered his own query: ‘The State is . . . saying that it will recognize any other marriage that either party chooses to make. That is the practical effect – indeed it is the only effect, unless it is supposed that the court has spiritual powers – of the decree’ (1965: 66). This remains the divorce decree’s only important legal consequence in the regulation of private habit.
