David Hodson on International Family Law: Married, Single or Other? Recognition of foreign marriages

David Hodson is presently on holiday. Hannah Budd is a solicitor at The International Family Law Group and acts in complex family law cases often with an international element.

The recent Court of Appeal case of Gulubovich (2010) EWCA 810 has refocused attention on the public policy element in the recognition of foreign marriages and divorces. In our experience deciding whether a foreign marriage and/or a foreign divorce will be recognised in England and Wales is a fundamental prerequisite at the beginning of any case in deciding what advice to give about possible remedies reliefs and action.

Generally speaking as a matter of public policy the English Courts bend over backwards to recognise foreign marriages. They look to two independent factors: that the marriage is formally valid and whether each of the parties to the marriage had...

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