I ought to make it clear that this Report, Putting Asunder, was the prelude to the Divorce Reform Act 1969, (later re-enacted in the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973). This was the Act which changed the legal basis on which a decree of divorce was granted, from the old concept of the matrimonial wrong to the new concept of the breakdown of the marriage relationship which did not necessarily impute blame. In practice it also changed the old concept of legal cruelty to the new concept of unreasonable conduct which the other spouse could not be expected to put up with, although it should not have done so according to the strict wording of the section. The net result was to make divorce much easier, and it opened the floodgates. Now there is no longer a hearing, which the petitioning spouse has to attend; no longer is divorce a formal and quite solemn occasion for the parties. Instead the Judge pronounces a decree of divorce in those cases whose names are pinned up on the notice board outside. This efficient and economical disposal of cases was no doubt the inspiration of someone influential in the Probate Divorce and Admiralty Division, as it used to be called. But it is important to go further back, and ask…