The Adultery and Enticement Act 1988 describes itself as an Act to regulate certain aspects of disputes relating to adultery and enticement, as a matter of national interest.
Those words are unusual in a statute of this kind, and they explain what the Act is for.
Disputes over adultery had long been a source of serious conflict in Papua New Guinea — between individuals, families and clans — with compensation demands escalating and sometimes leading to violence.
The Act channels those disputes into the District Court: a defined cause of action, a capped amount of compensation, compulsory mediation before hearing, and the abolition of every other route to a compensation claim on these grounds.
The four Parts
| Part | Sections | Subject |
|---|---|---|
| I | 1–3 | Interpretation; act of adultery; enticement |
| II | 4–9 | Actions; relatives; time limits; joinder; defences |
| III | 10–20 | Mediation; compensation and its limits; assessment, payment and enforcement |
| IV | 21–22 | Abolition of common law rights; repeals |
Section 1 — three definitions
“Compensation” means (a) in relation to an action arising out of an act of adultery — compensation for the act of adultery; and (b) in relation to an action arising out of enticement — compensation for the enticement.
“Court” means a District Court.
“Spouse” includes a party to a relationship between a man and a woman which can reasonably be considered as a subsisting relationship having the status of a marriage.
It is not confined to a statutory marriage under the Marriage Act (Chapter 280), nor even to a customary marriage. It reaches any relationship between a man and a woman which can reasonably be considered as a subsisting relationship having the status of a marriage.
So a couple living together as husband and wife without either form of marriage are within the Act. That is a deliberate choice: the disputes the Act was passed to control do not distinguish according to how the relationship was formed.
Contrast section 4 of the Matrimonial Causes Act (Chapter 282), which excludes customary marriages from that Act entirely.
Not the National Court. That makes the Act reachable: a District Court sits in every district centre, and its procedure is simple and inexpensive.
The same choice underlies the Family Court under the Lukautim Pikinini Act 2015, which sits as a District Court, and section 88 of the Matrimonial Causes Act, which allows a maintenance order to be registered in a court of summary jurisdiction.
Section 20 provides that an order of a Court shall be enforced under the District Courts Act (Chapter 40).
The District Courts Act (Chapter 40) is not available on PacLII at the time of writing.
Adultery is not a crime in Papua New Guinea
The standard of proof to be applied in proceedings under this Act shall be that applied in civil proceedings, namely, proof on the balance of probabilities.
Section 19 puts the position beyond doubt. An action under this Act is civil, decided on the balance of probabilities, and the remedy is compensation — not punishment.
The one criminal provision is section 18: a person who fails to comply with an order for compensation is guilty of an offence, punishable by imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months. That penalises disobedience to a court order, not the adultery.
Adultery has separate consequences elsewhere. It is a ground for divorce under section 17(a) of the Matrimonial Causes Act, and under section 32 of that Act the National Court may award damages against a co-respondent in a matrimonial cause.
The rest of the scheme follows from these definitions: section 2 defines the act of adultery, section 3 defines enticement, and Parts II and III set out who may sue, within what time, with what defences, and for how much. Section 22 repealed section 2 of the Native Regulation (Chapter 316) and section 2 of the Native Administration Regulation (Chapter 315), which had previously governed these disputes.
Sources
- Adultery and Enticement Act 1988 — ss 1–22
- Matrimonial Causes Act (Chapter 282) — ss 4, 17, 32, 88
- Marriage Act (Chapter 280) — s 3
- Lukautim Pikinini Act 2015 — s 87
Before relying on anything here, read the current text of the Marriage Act (Chapter 280) and check for later amendments. If a decision matters to you, get advice — start with the Office of the Public Solicitor, or find a firm in the law firms directory.