[2] Sometimes a Jewish woman can be held in a so-called "limping marriage" when her husband refuses co-operation in the religious form of divorce.
[4] In Bruker v. Marcovitz, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that, in the Province of Quebec, a condition of a contract between two spouses that required the husband to give his wife a get was enforceable.
Emery J. observed that: So-called "Gwiazda Orders" are now occasionally used when necessary to produce a fair result by requiring the parties to refer their problems to the local Beth Din.
The Act allows a Court discretionary right to award any damages under Tort remedies, impose any civil or criminal fines or other penalties, or to grant any further relief, and withhold the final legal civil dissolution of a marriage of Jews or of other person by means of granting the decree absolute until a declaration made by both parties that they have taken such steps as are required to dissolve the marriage in accordance with rabbinical law.
Were the man to refuse to give a get, the marriage would be declared null retroactively—it would be as if the couple were never married from a Jewish legal perspective.