Matrimonial Causes (Northern Ireland) Order 1978

General transitional provisions and savings N.I.

2.  Subject to paragraph 3, any application made or proceeding begun under any statutory provision repealed by this Order, being an application or proceeding which is pending at the commencement of this Order, shall be deemed to have been made or begun under any provision of this Order which corresponds to that statutory provision. N.I.

3.  Nothing in Part II of this Order shall apply in relation to any petition for divorce or judicial separation presented before the commencement of this Order, and notwithstanding any repeal or amendment made by this Order the Act of 1939 and any rules of court made for the purposes of that Act shall continue to have effect in relation to proceedings on any such petition which are pending at the commencement of this Order as they had effect immediately before the commencement of this Order. N.I.

4.  Notwithstanding any repeal or amendment made by this Order, the Act of 1939 and any rules of court made for the purposes of that Act shall continue to have effect in relation to— N.I.

(a) any proceedings on a petition for damages for adultery or for restitution of conjugal rights presented before the commencement of this Order which are pending at the commencement of this Order, and

(b) any proceedings for relief under section 17(2) or (3), 19(4), 20(2) or 22(2) of the Act of 1939 (as extended, in the case of section 22, by section 7 of the Maintenance and Affiliation Orders Act (Northern Ireland) 1966 [1966 c.35] ) brought in connection with proceedings on a petition for restitution of conjugal rights so presented, being proceedings for relief which are themselves pending at the commencement of this Order,

as they had effect immediately before the commencement of this Order, and nothing in Schedule 4 shall affect the operation of any other statutory provision in relation to any such proceedings.

5.  Subject to the provisions of this Order (and, in particular, to Articles 16 and 51(2)) and to rules of court, in exercising its jurisdiction in relation to nullity of marriage the court may act and may give relief on principles and rules which, in the opinion of the court, are as nearly as may be conformable to those on which the ecclesiastical courts of Ireland acted and gave relief before 1st January 1871. N.I.