The harmonisation of private international law in Europe: taking the character out of family law?

Abstract

This article examines the recent expansion of EU regulation of the private international law aspects of divorce and its consequences. The application of Brussels IIbis, the Maintenance Regulation, Rome III and the proposed Rome IV to a typical divorce case will be investigated to see if this unwieldy system is coherent in application. It is argued that the envisaged framework for international divorce is becoming unmanageable and that the characterisation of divorce by the EU into the three snapshots of decree, maintenance and matrimonial property ignores the ties between these three events provided by domestic policy