This doctoral thesis deals with one of the key institutions of Czech and French family law, divorce. Divorce is not merely a concept from some legal textbook. The specific fate of spouses, and even entire families, are tied up with it. This comparative study of Czech and French divorce law is divided into five main chapters and a statistical excursus. This thesis first discusses the historical and legal developments for ending a marriage, i.e. divorce, in both countries. This is followed by an analysis of the current substantive and procedural aspects of divorce in the Czech Republic. The focus of the work is an analysis of both procedural and substantive reform of divorce law in France and its fundamental differences from Czech divorce. Subsequently, it examines the consequences of divorce, possible future Czech legislation dealing with divorce and the innovations included in the French divorce law. The work ends with a presentation of relevant statistical data. The theoretical analysis of the institute of divorce is accompanied by practical examples of legal cases, current case law, conceptual solutions from specialists in the field of family law, as well as assessments from the author of this thesis.

La littérature juridique nous apprend que le divorce, institution fort ancienne permettant de rompre de manière définitive et radicale le lien conjugal, est étroitement lié à l'idéologie dominante et aux fluctuations politiques du pays considéré. La comparaison des législations en matière de divorce, objet de notre étude, permet alors, d'une part, de constater que l'évolution du « droit de divorcer » est marquée par des étapes successives d'interdiction et de rétablissement du divorce aussi bien en France qu'en Corée du Sud. Le principe du « droit de divorcer » une fois admis, cette démarche comparative permet d'autre part, de découvrir que, s'agissant du « droit du divorce », le choix législatif fondamental s'articule autour de deux idées dans les deux systèmes juridiques : diversifier les cas de divorce afin de répondre à la diversité des situations de crise conjugale, et dédramatiser le divorce en incitant les époux à trouver un accord sur les conséquences du divorce. L'approche comparative révèle une fois encore que les règles aboutissent à des solutions souvent proches mais que pour y parvenir, les législateurs respectifs des deux pays ont parfois emprunté des chemins différents / The legal literature let us know that a divorce, very old institution allowing to break the marital relation in a definitive and radical way, is closely linked to the prevailing ideology and political movements of the country. The comparison of legislations in divorce, purpose of our study, allows, on the one hand, to notice the evolution of the “right to divorce” is underlined by successive steps of prohibition of divorce and recovery both in France and in South Korea. The principle of “right to divorce” once accepted, this comparative approach allows on the other hand, to perceive that, regarding “divorce law”, the fundamental legislative choice turns on two ideas in both legal systems : diversify divorce cases to answer the diversity of a marital crisis, and not dramatize divorce encouraging spouses to reach an agreement on the consequences of divorce. The comparative approach reveals once again that the rules often lead to similar solutions but to accomplish goals, sometimes the legislators of the both countries have took different ways