CONJUGAL RIGHTS  , those rights which a

husband and wife (Lat. conjux) have to each other's society . When either party continues to refuse to render these rights to the other, they may be enforced by a suit for the restitution of conjugal rights . In England the jurisdiction which the old ecclesiastical courts exercised to enforce this right was transferred to the divorce court by the Matrimonial Causes Act 18J7 . The procedure is by citation and petition, but, before a petition can be filed, a written demand must be made to the refusing party for cohabitation . Previous to the Matrimonial Causes Act 1884, disobedience to a decree for the restitution of conjugal rights rendered the refusing party liable to attachment and imprisonment . The act of 1884 substituted for attachment, if the wife be the petitioner, an order for periodical payments by the husband to the wife . Failure to comply with a decree for restitution is deemed to be desertion, and a sentence of judicial separation may be pronounced, although the period of two years prescribed by the act of 1857 may not have expired . Conjugal rights cannot be enforced by the act of either party (R. v . Jackson, 1891, I Q.B . 671), the proper procedure being to apply to the court for relief .