Grounds of annulment of marriages with special reference to defects of a psychological nature in the light of the 1981 amendments to the marriage act, 1975

Abstract

Before the enactment of Act No. 37 of 1975, marriage in Malta used to be regulated by Canon Law and all cases of nullity were decided by the Ecclesiastical Tribunals, when at least one of the spouses was a member of the Catholic Church. However, Section 23 (1) of the Marriage Act clearly provides that : "Canon Law shall, in so far as it had effect as part of the law of Malta on marriage, cease to have such effect, and all jurisdiction in relation to marriage shall vest in the courts of Malta in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Code of Organisation and Civil Procedure". Several important amendments have been made in 1981 to the Marriage Act, dealing mostly with the grounds for annulment of marriages. These amendments appear to have been based on Canonical legislation regulating the requirements for valid marriage on the part of consent of the spouses, as updated by the drafts for the New Code of Canon Law. This has served to avoid, to a large degree, the anomalous situation whereby a marriage used to be null at Canon Law but valid at Civil Law, or vice versa. Also, it has given to our Judges the opportunity to use Canon Law as a source and to avail themselves of the wealthy case-law of the Ecclesiastical Tribunals. I propose in this introductory chapter to compare briefly the grounds for annulment as they were under the 1975 Act and changes that have taken place through the 1981 amendments. In the following chapters I propose to examine at a deeper level grounds of nullity with special reference to defects of a psychological nature.