# Legal Divorce in Chile?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legal-divorce-in-chile/178255>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [May 29, 2003, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legal-divorce-in-chile/178255 "2003-05-29T13:39:23Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\
**Post date:** [May 29, 2003, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legal-divorce-in-chile/178255/1 "2003-05-29T13:39:23Z")

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In the interesting little book, _Law in America_, Lawrence M. Friedman tosses out the comment:

> [@](#):
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> There have been societies without divorce – and there is still no legal divorce in Chile.

My WAG is that this is a holdover from the days of Catholic Spanish rule.

But humans have an infinite capacity for sliding around inconvenient laws and marriages can be no happier in Chile than in any other country. So what do they do in lieu in legal divorce in Chile?

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**Author:** ![Tusculan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecd19e/32.png) [@Tusculan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tusculan)\
**Post date:** [May 29, 2003, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legal-divorce-in-chile/178255/2 "2003-05-29T13:47:30Z")

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Since I didn’t believe it, I googled for it. Well, you learn something new every day! As for your question, Google gave me the following:

> [@](#):
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> Although Chile does not have a divorce law, a surrogate and well-institutionalized means of severing conjugal bonds is the annulment of civil marriages. Civil marriage ceremonies are the only legally valid ones, and couples who have church weddings must also marry at the civil registry. The annulment is usually done with the assistance of attorneys who argue that there has been some procedural error in the civil marriage process.

Source: [Encyclopedia of Women’s history](http://womenshistory.about.com/library/ency/blwh_chile_divorce.htm). The statement is corroborated by [About.com on atheism](http://atheism.about.com/library/world/AJ/bl_ChileFamily.htm?iam=dpile_1&terms=country+of+chile) (I’m too lazy too look for more, but the pages look credible)

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**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\
**Post date:** [May 29, 2003, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legal-divorce-in-chile/178255/3 "2003-05-29T16:31:30Z")

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Oh, well. I was hoping for some more creative answer than annulment, but I suppose it was inevitable. Thanks, **TTT**.

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**Author:** ![GaryM](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garym/32/241_2.png) [@GaryM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GaryM)\
**Post date:** [May 29, 2003, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legal-divorce-in-chile/178255/4 "2003-05-29T17:48:53Z")

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Maybe they do “Divorce Italian Style”?

That’s the title of a movie from a while back where divorce Italian style meant murder.

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**Author:** ![Schnitte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/schnitte/32/9033_2.png) [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)\
**Post date:** [May 29, 2003, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legal-divorce-in-chile/178255/5 "2003-05-29T19:25:57Z")

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Surely many dopers are aware of it, but I’d like to add that divorce used to be illegal in Ireland until a few years ago. They even had to amend their constitution in a referendum to legalize it.