How Will Brexit Affect Divorce in the UK?
There’s no need to make a tedious link between how Brexit is a divorce itself, between the UK and the EU. The fact of the matter is that when the UK does leave the EU it will have many legal implications.
Divorce is one of the most common reasons many people in the UK seek legal help, so any ways that Brexit may affect this procedure needs to be known and understood by those seeking a divorce in the future. These are a few ways it could have an impact once Article 50 has been triggered.
Legal Changes
Once Brexit has been finalised, the UK will no longer have to abide by or incorporate any EU laws into its legal system. This was one of the main reasons a lot of people wished to leave, believing the EU had too many rules and regulations that were made abroad and cost the economy millions every week to enforce, wishing the UK to take full control over its legal system.
However, Parliament will still be able to decide if it wants to keep any of the existing laws or get rid of them. There isn’t one specific divorce law, instead many different ones make up this area. So, depending on which EU laws are kept and abolished, divorce could be affected in any number of ways.
Human Rights
A big cause for concern for a lot of people is how rescinding EU membership will affect human rights legislation. There are a number of protections in place under EU law which have been included in UK domestic law around human rights, which can be involved in many aspects of divorce.
The UK also has obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), which will remain as this agreement does not originate from the EU. However, Prime Minister Theresa May has made it clear that she also wishes the UK to leave this as well. Instead the rights it decrees would be transferred into British law and applied by the Supreme Court. It would change divorce proceedings in certain cases, depending on the specifics.
Family Law
Family law is the most important legislation that presides over divorce. Brexit is expected to have a big effect on this, especially as the UK has many families where at least one parent is from a different EU nation. Issues such as the enforcement of maintenance, financial orders and more may change.
This could become particularly complicated when trying to put into practice enforcement arrangements from one EU country to the UK, once Brexit has gone through. Family law is linked to human rights and many other legal areas, so the bigger picture will need to be examined when leaving the EU.
Assets in Europe
At the moment, British expats can choose to divorce using the English courts. When the UK has left the EU though, this may no longer be the case, especially if things such as access to the single market are rescinded. Most other countries have a requirement that one half of the couple must be habitually resident in that country.
This could become the case for the UK in the near future. While it also remains unclear how it will work for couples who own property abroad in other EU countries when it gets down to sorting out financial arrangements.
The UK is currently viewed as the divorce capital of the world, thanks mostly to its relatively generous divorce laws. Therefore, it seems likely that the government will do all it can to keep this status by keeping existing rules and legislation as close as they can to what they currently are.
