Adultery
English Legal System: Adultery
In the context of the English law, A Dictionary of Law provides the following legal concept of Adultery :
An act of sexual intercourse between a male and female not married to each other, when at least one of them is married to someone else. Intercourse for this purpose means penetration of the vagina by the penis; any degree of penetration will suffice (full penetration is not necessary). Adultery is one of the five facts that a petitioner may rely on under the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 as evidence to show that the marriage has irretrievably broken dow However, in addition to the adultery, the petitioner must show that she or he finds it intolerable to live with the respondent.
See divorce.
Adultery, Sexual Behaviour and the Law
Further Reading
Grammar
This term is a noun.
Etimology of Adultery
(You may find adultery at the world legal encyclopedia and the etimology of more terms).
voluntary violation of the marriage bed, c. 1300, avoutrie, from Old French avouterie (12c., later adulterie, Modern French adult_re), noun of condition from avoutre, from Latin adulterare “commit adultery; corrupt,” from ad “to” (see ad-) + alterare “to alter” (see alter). Compare adulteration. The spelling was corrected toward Latin from early 15c. in English, following French (see ad-). In Middle English, also “sex between husband and wife for recreational purposes; idolatry, perversion, heresy.” As a crime, formerly classified as single adultery (with an unmarried person) and double adultery (with a married person). The Old English word was æwbryce “breach of law(ful marriage)” (similar formation in German Ehebruch). In translations of the 7th Commandment it is understood to mean “lewdness or unchastity” of any kind, in act or thought.
Adultery
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