Caroline Wright & Nigel Dyer QC consider how Agbaje will affect the divorce courts at home & abroad
Part III of the Matrimonial and Family Proceedings Act 1984 (Pt III) has been on the statute books for over 25 years. Its purpose was to give the English courts the power to alleviate hardship where no or inadequate financial orders were made after a foreign divorce where the parties have substantial connections with England (Law Commission Working Paper 1982). The number of families with a substantial connection to more than one jurisdiction has increased steadily in that time yet until now Pt III has been little used and relatively untested. Indeed, most of the Court of Appeal cases have been concerned with whether leave to apply under the Act should be set aside, rather than with appeals arising from substantive hearings.
Arguably, previous jurisprudence is now irrelevant following Agbaje v Akinnoye-Agbaje [2010] UKSC 13, [2010] All ER (D) 92 (Mar). It is the first time Pt III has been considered by the highest appellate court. By this landmark judgment, delivered
