The legal grounds for personal separation in Malta and some E.E.C. countries : a comparative study

Abstract

In this short essay I have tried to look at the grounds for personal separation from a legal point of view but without losing sight of the sociological aspect. The reason for this is that in my opinion, in any legislation regarding the family and matrimonial matters this aspect of the problem can never be ignored by a sensitive legislator. It has been said that man is both the creature and creator of the society in which he lives and since man usually lives within a family it is this last unit that is the basis of any society. Naturally, therefore any law that attempts to regulate it must take into account all the implications that any legislation will have on all the other units that make it up. Several factors must be constantly kept in mind by the legislator when he is dealing with matrimonial matters but I shall limit myself to mentioning only two. The first one is that although one may not accept that forever, one should nevertheless keep in marriage is mind that parenthood always is. The second one is that although laws depend on and in fact very often mirror the will of the majority, morality transcends the rules of democracy.