In World Without Borders, Even Divorces Are Global

Globalization is synonymous of commerce, finance, the Internet, but also of flows of people across the world, be they poor immigrants or footloose managers. One starts with an Erasmus exchange, an overseas internship, and easily becomes part of a cosmopolitan world in terms of workplace, travel, habits, and even family.

Mixed marriages, either due to a combination of different nationalities, races, and the religions are now the order of the day. They involve not only executives, entertainers or international bureaucrats. It just takes a fun holiday in some tourist resort or a period of study abroad to find the loved one on the other side of the planet. If love is blind and knows no borders, the same can be said for divorces that often follow.

What court should a spouse petition, if he or she wants to end a life experience gone awry? Conflicts between different jurisdictions are the norm. The diversity in laws and in the mentality of judges leads to significant variations in the rulings over the child custody and especially over alimony payments falling to the richer spouse, depending on the court you are addressing. Thus the incentive is there for "forum shopping", when seeking a divorce. It's best for the wealthier spouse, especially if he or she is responsible for the break-up, to seek a stingy court if he or she doesn't want to be bled dry by the former other half.

Reason would dictate that at least in Europe there be an agreement establishing which is the country of jurisdiction and what are the applicable laws, for instance the country where the last common residence occurred. But it's easier said than done. A project by the European Commission sank due to the opposition of Sweden, which insists in applying its law, since it fears to be forced to acknowledge the Shariah law in divorces between Islamic immigrants. To avoid paralysis, a group of EU countries, which includes Italy, has proposed to resort to "strengthened cooperation", the procedure that enables a group of at least eight states to press ahead without having to wait for all members. The euro has been the most famous forebear of this approach. Strengthened cooperations are very complex mechanisms, though (and that's the reason they have never been attempted until now), conceived to go around political vetoes that might arise on big issues. The very fact that it is being invoked for international divorces says a lot about the rapid evolution of our almost borderless world.