Material differences and their impact on cross-border divorces. Tensions between state international public policy and European public policy

Abstract

In family law and more specifically in divorce with a heterogeneous element, the intervention of domestic international public policy is often particularly recurrent. The great material differences in the regulation of this institution are the perfect habitat for the intervention of this exceptional remedy to flourish in the different sectors of PIL problems. In the European multicultural context, the absence of a material unification of family law creates important imbalances in the configuration of this remedy, so that the supra-state conception of public policy will frequently put its domestic perspective in check. The present study delves into the origin of these tensions and attempts to provide answers to this problem.