Sir James Munby, the UK's most senior family law judge, has recently said that couples should be able to get a divorce simply by signing a form at the register office. In a radical move, he said consenting couples should be able to end their marriage without the approval of a judge.
Whilst it is not always necessary to attend court in person, every divorce in the UK currently has to be assessed and approved by a judge. These new proposals would do away with that process, with break-ups simply being recorded by a registrar in the same way as births, marriages and deaths.
Sir James also proposed a law that would see cohabiting couples being treated as though they were married after having lived together for a set number of years.
He said that in some countries divorce which is by consent and where there are no children is treated in a simply administrative manner "and it seems to work". He did not advocate this system where there was no consent or where children were involved.
Any changes to divorce laws would need parliamentary legislation, and Sir James hasn't even run his ideas past ministers as yet, so they're not likely to come into practice any time soon.
Critics of the new 'administrative' divorce have said that the laws would be open to abuse and would mean an end to marriage itself.
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