Hence, suppose a German man marries a Turkish woman and they live in Poland until the breakdown, at which point the wife goes to Nevada because she has heard that the courts of the U.S. allow quick divorces and give generous maintenance and property settlement awards.
When he hears of this plan, the husband moves himself and all his assets to Ireland because he has heard that Irish courts do not recognise and enforce U.S. divorce decrees and their ancillary orders.
The majority of states recognize the family as the natural grouping upon which society and culture are based, and guarantee to protect the institution in their constitutions both as the source of social order and as indispensable to the future welfare of their nations.
Hence, marriage tends to be treated as a moral institution (with or without religious significance) and those who achieve the status of spouse are vested with a number of rights which can only be varied or terminated by court order.
But the majority of more secular states make no fault divorce a relatively automatic process to reflect the reality that the marriage has broken down, sometimes without the need for both parties to attend at a hearing.
In both cases, once jurisdiction has been established, the lex fori will be applied to determine whether the local ground(s) of divorce have been satisfied and, if so, the marriage will be terminated with or without ancillary orders being made.
[1] Habitual residence has become the leading factor in unraveling a jurisdiction entanglement revolving custody issues raised in a divorce action.
Within the European Union, but excluding the member nation of Denmark, Regulation 2201/2003 (known as Brussels II) sets out the rules on jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of judgments in matrimonial matters and in matters of parental responsibility for children of both spouses except for orders relating to matrimonial property.
Otherwise, there is a clear public policy need to consider whether, in an increasingly multi-racial and multi-ethnic society, transnational Islamic divorces can or should be recognized.
If the talaq is executed in a state where it is effective to terminate the marriage, this potentially affects the status and capacity of the spouses so that they are then free to remarry.
However, this may be against public policy because one of the parties is seeking to evade some mandatory provisions of law or it is not in the best interests of any children (see parens patriae).
In the EU, Regulation 44/2001 of 22 December 2000 on Jurisdiction and the Recognition and Enforcement of Judgments in Civil and Commercial Matters (known as Brussels I) and Regulation 805/2004 of 21 April 2004 in respect of Uncontested Claims allow the almost automatic enforcement of all orders affecting maintenance when the parties are domiciled or habitually resident in the Member States with the exception of Denmark.
This procedure is very simple and only requires the attendance of one of the spouses during the hearing which takes usually less than half an hour and you can leave Dominican Republic the same day in the afternoon.
It takes ten to fifteen days to obtain a divorce decree, which is to be sent to your home or office by courier (DHL or FedEx).
The parties should sign a settlement agreement revised by an attorney in their jurisdiction in order to confirm it complies with spouses local laws.