JUDICIAL SEPARATION, in English law, is the separation of two married persons by order of the court of divorce. Married persons may, if they please, mutually agree to live separate, and they may enter into a deed of separation for that purpose, which to some extent is recognized as valid by courts of equity. This is called voluntary separa thin. But, in the eye of the law, two married persons living apart are still married, and retain the status of married persons, and must sue and be sued in all respects the same as if they were still cohabiting. And a deed of separation is always revocable by the parties, though to some extent binding on each, if the other do not consent to renew the cohabitation. But when the parties have not mutually consented to separate, one of them can compel a judicial separation for certain grounds of misconduct. Thus, either party may apply on the ground of adultery or cruelty, or desertion without case for two years and upwards. The kind of cruelty which has been held a ground of judicial 'separation is difficult of definition. • The consequences of a judicial separation are as follow: The parties, not being divorced, .cannot marry again; but there is no longer the duty of cohabiting. Part of the decree may consist of an award of a certain income to the wife after separation, and the court may make orders as to the custody and maintenance of the children. But, irrespective of this, the wife becomes, to all intents and purposes as regards her future property, in the same position as if she were unmarried. On the other hand, the husband is no longer responsible for maintaining his wife, except so far as he may have been ordered to pay her alimony, and he is not liable for her future debts. In 1857 the law
on this head was materially improved, and a new divorce court established, which, since the judicAture act of 1873, falls within the probate, divorce, and admiralty division of the high court of justice.
In Scotland the law has also been recently changed, and now nearly coincides with the English law in many respects, this improvement being made by the conjugal rights' act, 24 and 25 Viet. c. 86. By that act, whenever a decree of separation a mensa 4 thorn is obtained at the instance of the wife, all property which she may acquire, or which may devolve upon her, is held entirely separate from and independent of lier husband; she &in bequeath it by will as if he were dead; she can also enter into contracts, and sue and be sued in her own name; and the husband is no longer liable for necessaries or her debts, except so far as he is bound by the decree of separation to pay to her aliment. As regards the grounds of judicial separation in Scotland, they are nearly the same, being described by Mr. Bell in his Principles thus: whenever life is endangered, or there is fair and reasonable ground of apprehension of personal violence, or there is continued annoyance, wearing out and exhausting the party, or there are adulterous practices. It will, however, be found that the grounds of divorce are more ample in Scotland than in England. See MARRIAGE.