The law on the annulment of marriages needs to be overhauled according to a report published today by the Law Society of Ireland.
The Law Society's Law Reform Committee's report, Nullity of marriage: the case for reforms, recommended that the concept of a "voidable" marriage should be abolished as well as the reasons used to declare a marriage null and void.
Instead the report said such cases should be dealt with under divorce laws.
The report also proposed specialised regional family courts and judges trained in family law should be provided to hear nullity applications.
It calls for a separate civil ceremony to effect a valid marriage and argued religious ceremonies should no longer include an element giving effect to a civil law marriage.
Tackling the issue of divorce, the report recommended the introduction of "clean break" divorce, arguing to assign cases previously based on voidable grounds to the divorce jurisdiction would worsen the position of parties without this change.
"We also believe that clean break divorce should be examined on its own merits, in the interests of fairness and certainty," it said
The Law Society has submitted its nullity report to the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform.