The spouse may seek that the marriage is annulled. An annulment has the effect of dissolving a marriage on the grounds that the marriage, due to a defect in the consent of one or both spouses, never really existed.
Generally, proceedings for the annulment of a marriage is preceded by the spouses first acquiring legal separation. Civil annulments are regulated by ‘The Marriage Act’ Chapter 255 of the Laws of Malta and may only be pronounced if any of the grounds established in Article 19 are satisfied.

Annulment of a marriage and therefore the dissolution of the marriage may be pronounced if:

• the consent of either of the parties is extorted by violence, whether physical or moral, or fear;
• the consent of either of the parties is excluded by error on the identity of the other party;
• the consent of either of the parties is extorted by fraud about some quality of the other party which could of its nature seriously disrupt matrimonial life;
• the consent of either of the parties is vitiated by a serious defect of discretion of judgment on the matrimonial life, or on its essential rights and duties, or by a serious psychological anomaly which makes it impossible for that party to fulfill the essential obligations of marriage;
• either of the parties is impotent, whether such impotence is absolute or relative, but only if such impotence is antecedent to the marriage;
• the consent of either of the parties is vitiated by the positive exclusion of marriage itself, or of any one or more of the essential elements of matrimonial life, or of the right to the conjugal act;
• either of the parties subjects his or her consent to a condition referring to the future;
• either of the parties, although not interdicted or infirm of mind, did not have at the time of contracting marriage, even on account of a transient cause, sufficient powers of intellect or volition to elicit matrimonial consent.