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The Court of Appeal has made reference to the very high number of overseas divorcees looking to rely on their links with England and Wales to try and take advantage of this country's beneficial divorce laws.

The observation was made by Lord Justice Thorpe in the Golubovich case, which concerned the appropriate forum for dealing with the divorce of a Russian millionaire couple.

The Facts
The husband and wife were 24 and 26 respectively and had been married for only 3 years. After their marriage broke down last year, Elena Golubovich filed a divorce petition in London at more or less the same time that her husband, Illya Golubovich filed a petition in Moscow. The husband went on to obtain a Decree in the Russian Courts.

His family was exceptionally rich. His mother was said to be the owner of the Russian equivalent of Tesco, whilst his father was the financial director of Russian oil company, Yukos.

Russian law vs. English law.

Under Russian divorce law, generally speaking only those assets accumulated during the period a couple are married are considered for division between a divorcing couple. Had she been able to successfully argue that the divorce should take place in this country however, the wife would have been able to rely on the divorce laws of England & Wales, which allows consideration of all assets owned by the parties or within their control, whether acquired before or during the marriage.

Whilst neither party in this case was a British citizen, EU law allows parties to commence proceedings in this country provided they satisfy the strict requirements of domicile and/or habitual residence and there are no existing proceedings elsewhere.

It was on this basis of the Russian Decree that Lord Justice Thorpe refused the wife's English divorce, commenting that "to refuse recognition of the Moscow decree would disregard our obligation to respect the function of that court".

He went on to observe that there are an increasing number of overseas divorcees looking to channel their divorce through the English Courts in the hope of receiving a larger financial settlement. Were it not for the Russian Decree, there would have been very limited legal scope for barring the wife from pursuing an English divorce, given her petition was issued in England before the husband's was issued in Russia.

With different jurisdictions across the world operating a different set of legal principles to the division of finances, it can be sensible to seek advice from a solicitor with knowledge of the different regimes operated in those countries so that an informed decision can be made.

Andrew Barton is a family solicitor and Resolution Accredited Specialist in complicated financial matters arising from divorce. He regularly advises in relation to International divorce and the resolution of complicated or high net worth financial matters. Stephens Scown's family solicitors  are based in Exeter, Truro and St Austell.