International Family Law: Comparing Divorce Jurisdictions in International Family Law: Procedure May Trump Substance

My new article, Comparing Divorce Jurisdictions in International Family Law: Procedure May Trump Substance, is in the current (June 2008) edition of The Matrimonial Strategist. It is also available on my website.

When comparing possible jurisdictions for international family law cases, it is frequently important to focus on procedural matters and not simply to compare the rules and practices concerning the division of assets, maintenance and other substantive issues. For example, while it is important to know how different courts will determine which assets are to be divided upon a divorce and how they will determine the appropriate proportions, it is often even more important to compare the discovery techniques of the jurisdictions being compared and the disclosure obligations imposed upon the parties in the various jurisdictions. Case in point: California is at one extreme in requiring real disclosure, while Austria, Japan and many other civil law countries are at the other extreme in requiring very little disclosure. Read on