What would leaving the
EU mean for family law?
The European Union (EU) has a limited role in family law matters.
The EU is only entitled to make laws in areas where the treaties
give it the specific competence to do so. It has no specific
competence to make laws in relation to divorce, maintenance or
parental responsibility. This means it cannot make laws setting
out the terms under which a divorce may be granted or the
responsibility of spouses to pay maintenance or how decisions
on parenting arrangements for children are to be made. Each
individual member state has its own rules about separation,
divorce, maintenance of spouses and children, custody and
guardianship and other family law matters.
However, the EU does have competence
to promote judicial co-operation in family
law matters which have cross border
implications. The role of the EU is mainly
concerned with ensuring that decisions
made in one country can be implemented
in another. It also has a role in trying to
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establish which country has jurisdiction
to hear a particular case. It has made a
number of regulations dealing with judicial
co-operation in family law matters. In
general, these regulations are based on
the principle of mutual recognition – that
is, that decisions lawfully made in one