European Family Law: the Beginning of the End for "Proper" Provision?

Abstract

European law has become increasingly relevant to Irish family law issues. The measures in question are wide-ranging, covering matters as diverse as the enforcement of maintenance decisions in other Member States, the jurisdiction for earing divorce and separation claims, and most recently, the determination of applicable law in divorce. Although Ireland has not acceded to the full range of European measures, they are all nonetheless highly significant in Irish family law, particularly in relation to 'international' family situations where one or both spouses are foreign nationals, or where an Irish couple has a connection with another jurisdiction, perhaps due to previous residence or because the marriage took place abroad. This article examines a number of European measures that are particularly relevant in the marital breakdown context, and argues that the increases in legal certainty attributed to these measures are not as great as often assumed, and may come at the expense of Irish statutory and constitutional requirements that 'proper' provision be made on marital breakdown.