Constructive Desertion

English Legal System: Constructive Desertion

In the context of the English law, A Dictionary of Law provides the following legal concept of Constructive Desertion : Behaviour by one spouse causing the other to leave the matrimonial home. If the behaviour is so bad that the party who leaves is forced to do so, it is the spouse who stays behind who is considered, in law, to have deserted, and not the spouse who actually left. A petition for divorce may therefore be brought, after two years, on the ground of *desertion by the spouse who remained behind.