EU reform of divorce legislation set to change Irish family law

SO if you are from Portugal, your spouse is French, you were married in Rome and you are living in Ireland — where do you get divorced?

Nobody has accurate figures on how many cross-border marriages there are between Europeans, but in Germany alone they estimate about 30,000 couples of different nationalities are divorced each year.

The European Commissioner for Justice, Franco Frattini, has just begun working on a law applicable to international divorces.

Currently a vengeful spouse might seek out the country that gives him or her the most advantageous divorce.

Mr Frattini says the aim is not to harmonise the divorce laws of the member states, but to find solutions.

However, Irish family law expert Geoffrey Shannon who also sits on the European committee debating such issues points out that such harmonisation has other effects.

For instance, same sex couples who are entitled to be married in Belgium and Holland cannot be discriminated against when it comes to getting a divorce even in Ireland under proposed changes.

So if they cannot be discriminated against in this matter, it's a very short step to Ireland and other EU countries recognising same sex marriages.

Dr Shannon's point is that it should be debated by the citizens and not introduced by the back door.

He also believes that legislation on children's rights and custody issues that came into force earlier this month is also changing Irish law without any public debate among politicians or the judiciary.

The effect of the latest regulations is that Irish Courts will have to recognise the rights of same sex and cohabiting couples.

The regulation has been described by the Department of Justice as an add-on to the existing law to ensure family law decisions made in one member state are recognised throughout the Union.

But Dr Shannon said the implications are far more widespread.

"This is going to change radically the landscape of Irish family law and is the most significant development since we joined the EU thirty years ago."

Child custody and visiting rights decisions made in other countries will have to be enforced by Irish courts even though it conflicts with Irish law or there is no law to cover them.

"This will have the effect of introducing new family law rules into Ireland through the back door. It will open a real can of worms," he said.

The Law Reform Commission produced a consultation paper late last year on granting rights to cohabiting couples, but this could now be considered redundant, he said.

Dr Shannon said the legal profession across Europe is waking up to the implications of the new regulation.

"At the time of the second Nice referendum the government gave assurances changes like this would be debated. Now we have a very significant regulation coming in without it even being discussed in the Oireachtas," he added.