A New Methodological Approach to the History of Divorce, 1857-1923.

备受瞩目的离婚案件经常成为头条新闻和公众关注的焦点，他们的情况(更不用说公众对这些案件的反应)可以揭示许多社会规范和行为。离婚案件也可以直接导致立法改革，例如，欧文斯诉欧文斯案(2018)直接导致了《2022年离婚、解除和分居法案》的通过，该法案使居住在英格兰和威尔士的夫妇可以在不将责任归咎于任何一方的情况下离婚，这在离婚最初根据1857年《婚姻诉讼法案》成为国家关注的问题时是不可想象的。许多当代家庭法立法可以直接追溯到1857年的《家庭法》，但关于出现在第一家庭法院的男子、妇女和儿童的生活经历的历史数据目前尚不清楚。此外，如果没有一个方法论框架来审查索引不佳的法庭记录(根据J 77保存在国家档案馆)，这种信息是不可知的。这个项目将使用一种新的多学科方法来解决这些缺点，这种方法将混合方法历史方法与女权主义法律理论和数字人文学科相结合。国际刑事法院设计了一个创新的关系数据库，将能够系统地审查从1858年成立到1923年(100年滚动禁运的期限)期间向离婚和婚姻诉讼法院提交的请愿书。项目数据库由两个较小的相互链接的数据库组成。第一个使用关于案例本身的核心信息来创建个人案例记录(ICR)，第二个使用创建个人记录(IPR)。知识产权可以连接到多个ICR。律师、大律师、书记员、法官、请愿人、答辩人和共同答辩人(S)的姓名，包括他们的职业、地址、婚姻细节、请愿的法律依据、任何子女的细节和相关的监护安排，以及法院做出的裁决，也将被记录下来。也有少数法律专业以外的知识产权附于多个ICR的案例。例如，纳丁·索菲·夏洛特·布林克利在孩提时代出现，后来(两次)以请愿人的身份出现，提供了一个令人兴奋的机会来审视19世纪和20世纪离婚的纵向社会经济影响。将对产生的数据集进行询问，以解决4个主要研究方向：a)离婚和家庭虐待的历史b)离婚的经济成本)子女监护权和调解d)家庭法专业的发展使用创新的关系数据库系统地检查J 77档案将回答关于CDMC、其官员和出现在CDMC之前的夫妇的直接询问。这些数据将反映当代问题的背景，但更重要的是，通过与政策制定者和第三部门团体(包括CAFCASS和妇女援助组织)的协作研讨会以及量身定做的政策报告，它还将影响新的实践方向。PI还将与项目合作伙伴国家档案馆合作，与学院外的团体接触，特别是家族史和家谱社区，并提高人们对J 77收藏中所包含的丰富信息的认识。这种创新的、多学科的方法不仅将改变我们对提交给CDMC的请愿书的理解，也将改变我们对更广泛的19世纪社会的理解。除了面向政策和公众的产出外，该数据库还将构成一本关于19世纪和20世纪初英格兰和威尔士离婚生活经历的领域定义专著和2篇期刊论文的基础。至关重要的是，该数据库还将成为进入J77的门户，允许包括人类地理学家、语言学家、犯罪学家、心理学家、社会科学家、历史学家和法律学者在内的学者首次创建自己的J77队列，从而启发多个领域的新研究，并确保项目的来世。

High-profile divorce cases regularly grab headlines and public attention and their circumstances (not to mention the public response to them) can reveal much about social norms and behaviours. Divorce cases can also lead directly to legislative reform, e.g. Owens v. Owens (2018) led directly to the passing of the Divorce, Dissolution and Separation Act 2022, which made it possible for couples living in England and Wales to divorce without ascribing blame to either party, something unimaginable when divorce first became a concern of the state under the Matrimonial Causes Act 1857. Much contemporary family law legislation can be traced directly back to the 1857 Act, yet historic data about the lived experiences of the men, women and children who appeared before this first family court is currently unknown. Moreover, without a methodological framework to examine the poorly indexed court records (held under J 77 at The National Archives), such information is unknowable. This project will address these shortcomings using a new, multidisciplinary methodology that combined mixed-method historical approaches with feminist legal theory and digital humanities. An innovative relational database, designed by the PI, will enable the systematic examination of petitions made to the Court for Divorce and Matrimonial Causes (CDMC) from its establishment in 1858 to 1923 (the limit of the 100-year rolling embargo). The project database consists of two smaller interlinked databases. The first uses core information about the case itself to create an Individual Case Record (ICR), and the second create Individual Person Records (IPR). IPRs can be attached to multiple ICR. The names of solicitors, barristers, clerks, judges, petitioners, respondents, and co-respondent(s), including their occupation, address, details of marriage, legal grounds of the petition, details of any children and related custody arrangements, along with the decision reached by the court, will also be recorded. There are also a small number of cases where an IPR outside of the legal professions is attached to multiple ICR. For example, Nadine Sophie Charlotte Brinkley appears as a child and later (twice) as a petitioner, offering the exciting opportunity to examine the longitudinal socio-economic effects of divorce in the 19th and 20th century. The resulting dataset will be interrogated to address 4 key research strands: a) History of divorce and domestic abuseb) Economic cost of divorcec) Child custody and mediation d) Development of the family law professionSystematically examining the J 77 files using the innovative relational database will answer direct queries about the CDMC, its officers, and the couples who appeared before it. The data will contextualise contemporary issues but, more importantly, through a collaborative workshop with policy makers and third sector groups including CAFCASS, and Women's Aid, and tailored policy reports, it will also influence new practice direction. The PI will also collaborate with project partner The National Archives, to engage with groups outside the academy, notably the family history and genealogy community and raise awareness of the rich information contained in the J 77 collection.This innovative, multidisciplinary methodology will transform not only our understanding of petitions made to the CDMC but also of 19th century society more broadly. In addition to policy and public facing outputs, the database will also form the basis of a field-defining monograph on the lived experience of divorce in 19th and early 20th century England and Wales and 2 journal articles. Crucially, the database will also act as a gateway to J 77, allowing scholars including human geographers, linguists, criminologists, psychologists, social scientists, historians, and legal scholars to create their own J77 cohorts for the first time, thus inspiring new research in multiple sectors and ensuring an afterlife for the project.