The House Floor approved on Wednesday (20), in first turn, the bill on a constitutional amendment which eliminates the requirement of judicial separation for more than one year, or proven de facto separation for more than two years, for couples filing for divorce. That bill, which needs to be voted in second turn, obtained 374 favorable votes and 15 against it. After being approved at the Chamber, the matter will follow to Senate.

Current Constitution establishes that “civil marriage can be dissolved by divorce, after a previous judicial separation for more than one year in the cases expressed by law, or proven real separation for more than two years.”

According to the approved bill, “civil marriage can be dissolved by divorce, as required by law”, without those deadlines. The Law regulates the legal effects of separation, such as the guard of children, the possible payment of child support and the partition of family assets.

Substitution bill
The approved text was the substitution bill by its rapporteur, Deputy Joseph Bandeira (PT-BA), to the PECs 22/99, by Deputy Enio Bacci (PDT-RS); 413/05, by Deputy Antonio Carlos Biscaia (PT-RJ); and 33/07, by Deputy Sérgio Barradas Carneiro (PT-BA).

The rapporteur rejected the first PEC (22/99), which set a single term of one year for the separation (judicial or de facto), and approved another two, which simply eliminate that deadline.

The text of the two PECs is the same. The authors presented the bill by the suggestion of the Brazilian Institute of Family Law (IBDF), a body which gathers magistrates, lawyers, prosecutors, psychologists, psychoanalysts, sociologists and other professionals actuating in the scope of family relationships and in their conflicts resolution.

According to the authors and its rapporteur, the former judicial separation was maintained in Brazilian law, because of a political agreement made so as to allow the adoption of divorce in Brazil.

For them, the unification of all hypotheses of partners’ separation into divorce is necessary, be it litigious or consensual. The submission to two judicial processes (judicial separation and divorce by conversion), results in accrued expenses for the couple, in addition to extending avoidable suffering.

According to its rapporteur, the text of PEC 22, which used to set a one-year term, was “very shy”. For him, the argument that the end of the institution of judicial separation would weaken the family is not valid. “It is exactly the opposite, since it will encourage the establishment of new families”, he affirmed.
 

From the newsroom/WS
Translation - Positive Idiomas Ltda