by Rod Hughes

An antiquated article of the Family Code that forbade women to remarry in less than 300 days after their divorce was struck down by the Fourth Chamber of the Supreme Court as being discriminatory against women. The high court noted that men were not subjected to the same requirement.

A woman was required to submit to a pregnancy test if she were to receive permission to wed within 300 days after a divorce. Prosecutor Ana Lorena Brenes had argued that the law did not forbid the woman’s remarriage but simply placed a requirement on it. The judges disagreed, noting dryly that better, modern means to establish paternity exist, making the article unnecessary.