Can you stipulate a contract that refrains one spous from divorce?

Question

My name is Isabel and I live in Sweden, my husband wrote a document that says: Iam not going to divorce Isabel Marin until she decides to make the decision. The following solutions to have a good marriage apply.

is this document valid? How can I get this document respected, going to civil court?

Wich is the law or regulation to respect the legal validity of a written document.

Thanks I dont want divorce

Answer 1

Hi and thank you for choosing Lawline.

In order to answer your question i will describe which documents swedish contract law honors and how you can get them validated. I will also describe the swedish law regarding marriage and divorce.

Your question is regulated in Äktenskapsbalken (ÄB).

Which contracts is valid within swedish law?

Swedish law recognises a wide variety of legal contracts. There are certain contract that needs specific form while other documents can be presented in any form and still be legally valid. Contracts can be both verbally and in writing, when drafting important contracts they should typically be in writing. For a contract to be valid it requires consentient declaration of intention - often presented as an offer which is admitted through an accept. As soon as these two component are present there is a legally valid contract.

Can you obtain a legal document that refrains someone from divorcing you?

This simple answer to this question is no. There is a legal right to be able to divorce someone, one can not through legal contracts restrict one's ability to do so.

In swedish law a divorce need to be consensual. If only one of the spouses files for divorce the divorce will not gain legal status until there has been a time of consideration, this is usually for six months. Both spouses can avoid the consideration time if they are unanimous in their decision and do not live with children under the age of 16, if so, there need to be consideration time either way. (5 kapitlet. 1-2 §§ ÄB).

Conclusion

You cannot make a contract that the swedish legal system will honor that contains this kind of terms.

I hope we have answered your question,

Best regards