ABSTRACT
The rules for recognition of divorces and legal separations are the same. To avoid repetition of cumbersome expressions, the word ‘divorce’ will be used to include the other form of relief and may be understood to do so unless the contrary is stated. The simple question that we are concerned with is whether a divorce granted by a foreign court is to be recognised in England. English law has to strike a balance between two extreme positions. It would be possible to have a situation in which the criteria for the recognition of divorces granted by country X were so demanding that few divorces were recognised. There would then be a large number of situations in which parties were divorced in country X but the divorce was not recognised in England. The disadvantages and practical inconvenience that may arise from such an increase in ‘limping marriages’ are obvious. The second possible situation is where the rules of recognition are so liberal that A may leave country B, secure a divorce in country C and return to country B expecting that the divorce will be recognised; such a liberal regime, where effectively all foreign divorces are recognised, will only serve to undermine the jurisdictional rules of country B, as its citizens will seek to secure abroad that which they cannot obtain at home. English law, as in so many areas, has to find a sensible balance midway between two undesirable extremes.
