You are here: Home Page » News » Rome Iii Applicable Law Eu Proposals Scrapped
Rome III applicable law: EU proposals scrapped
News reaches us that the dramatic changes proposed by the EU in July 2006, and originally to be in force from March 2008, have been shelved. They would have fundamentally changed English family law so that we no longer applied our own English law but the laws of many other countries.
Rome III is a draft legislation proposed by the European Union in mid 2006 intended to come into force across the European Union in March 2008 and requiring all European Union countries to adopt in divorce and ancillary financial matters not necessarily the law of the land, English law in England, but the law of the country with which the couple concerned in the family law proceedings had the closest connection. So a French couple living long-term in England would have their divorce and financial proceedings in England decided by an English judge and English lawyers applying French law. It would not be limited to the European Union families. An Australian couple or a Nigerian couple getting divorced in England where they have presently jurisdiction would have Australian or Nigerian law applied. This presents colossal problems in practice with knowing what is the relevant foreign law and how it would be applied in the particular circumstances of the case and differentiating between the law itself and the procedure.
News has been reaching us over the past couple of weeks that the draft legislation has been shelved by the European Union. This was first posted by the Law Society Brussels office which is invariably very reliable and follows closely the European Union developments. However there was no official confirmation. From our own inquiries, it has now been confirmed to us by a senior judicial source and a senior government source. Accordingly we decided that the time was right to post this information.
It is thoroughly to be welcomed. The proposed change would have had probably the greatest transformation on English family law for a century. It would greatly have added to the costs of resolving a case, added greatly to the delays of resolution and made it much more difficult to settle cases because of the uncertainty of what was the foreign law. We are very pleased. We have been campaigning against the introduction of applicable law for several years.
However other legislation coming from Europe also features applicable law yet this is legislation which is desperately needed, such as improved reciprocal enforcement of family law financial orders across Europe. We hope very much that a way can now be found to introduce this legislation without the necessity of also imposing applicable law.
We continue to urge the European Union law reformers to amend the jurisdictional provisions in Brussels II by creating a hierarchy of jurisdiction for divorce. This would show the country with the closest connection to the family and this country would then deal with the divorce and other family law proceedings. In such a way, the race to issue in Brussels II which is so hated and so contrary to the whole ethos of settlement orientated resolution and reconciliation opportunities, would no longer be required. Also applicable law would no longer be an issue as the country with the closest connection to the family would apply its own local law.
If you require any further information on this, please contact David Hodson at iFLG
Posted on 09 July, 2008 by David Hodson
