adwokat dr Piotr Sobanski - The legal concept of breakdown of marriage

The only condition for dissolution of a marriage through divorce, according to Article 56 § 1 of the Family and Guardianship Code, is a complete and lasting breakdown of marital life. This condition is absolute because the law does not provide any exceptions to it. The breakdown of marital life belongs to the category of legal concepts for which it must be assumed from the outset that a strict statutory definition is not possible. The task of defining this concept falls to case law and legal literature. All attempts to define this concept start with defining the concept of shared marital life. Shared life, as understood in Article 23 of the Family and Guardianship Code, consists of the spiritual, physical, and economic bond between spouses, which is the purpose of marriage and enables the fulfillment of its basic tasks. The positive condition for divorce is fulfilled when the breakdown of marital relations is permanent and complete. The breakdown is complete if there are no longer any physical, emotional, and economic ties between the spouses. If at least one tie, such as an economic one, is maintained, then a positive condition for divorce cannot be established, and the divorce claim should be dismissed. (...)