| 释义 |
adultery
n. 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). Receiving donor insemination does not constitute adultery, nor does anal intercourse or non-penetrative sex. Previously, adultery was one of the five facts that a petitioner could rely on under the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 as evidence to show that the marriage had irretrievably broken down. However, in addition to the adultery, the petitioner had to show that she or he found it intolerable to live with the respondent, although not necessarily as a consequence of the adultery (Cleary v Cleary [1974] 1 WLR 73 (CA)). Adultery was never a specifically recognized fact for the purposes of civil partnership dissolution, and its definition means that it was inapplicable to same-sex spouses unless committed with a person of the opposite sex. In any event, such facts will no longer need to be relied upon under the Divorce, Dissolution and Separation Act 2020. See divorce. |