International Families and Jurisdiction: What You Need to Know

March 10, 2026

When a marriage has connections to more than one country, perhaps you married abroad, hold assets overseas, or your spouse is a foreign national, the legal complexity multiplies quickly. One of the first and most consequential questions is simply this: which country’s courts should handle your case? International family cases are not simply domestic divorces with an added complication. They involve overlapping legal systems, enforcement questions, and strategic decisions that can shape the outcome significantly.

How Brexit Changed Things

Before the end of the Brexit transition period on 31 December 2020, families across the UK and EU operated under a regulation known as Brussels II Revised. This was relatively straightforward and provided a clear and consistent framework: whichever court received divorce papers first would have jurisdiction. This prevented both parties from racing to file in different countries simultaneously.

Those rules no longer apply to proceedings started after that date. For divorces initiated now, there is no equivalent EU-wide framework to fall back on. The result is a more fragmented system, and one where jurisdictional disputes are easier to trigger and harder to resolve. If your divorce has any international element, this shift is directly relevant to you.

Why It Matters Where You Divorce

Different countries approach divorce very differently. England and Wales, for example, are generally regarded as more generous to the financially weaker spouse than many other European jurisdictions. The treatment of pensions, overseas assets, maintenance, and property can vary enormously depending on where proceedings are conducted and a financial outcome that would be considered fair in one country might look quite different under another country’s law. Enforceability is equally important; there is little practical value in obtaining a favourable court order if the assets you need to access are held in a foreign country that will not recognise it. The court you choose must be capable of delivering an outcome that can actually be implemented.

The Particular Problem of Overseas Pensions

Pensions are frequently among the most valuable assets in a marriage, yet they are also among the most difficult to deal with when they are held abroad. In Goyal v Goyal, the English court considered whether it could make a pension sharing order against an Indian annuity and concluded that, whilst the definition of a pension arrangement might technically extend to overseas schemes, the practical machinery to enforce such an order simply does not exist internationally.

Pension sharing orders are what lawyers call ‘in rem’ (they attach to the pension itself rather than being a personal obligation on the other party). That distinction matters when the pension sits outside the jurisdiction of the English court. In practice, solutions often involve seeking equivalent orders in the country where the pension is held, using pension attachment rather than sharing, or offsetting the pension’s value against other assets within the reach of the English Court.

Choosing Where to Proceed: Forum Shopping

‘Forum shopping’ has a slightly dubious reputation, but for international families it is often a legitimate and necessary exercise. If you have genuine connections to more than one country (through residency, nationality, domicile, or where your assets are) you may have a real choice about where to file and understanding the implications of each option is simply put, good legal strategy.

Timing has become critical in the post-Brexit era as without the protections of Brussels II Revised, the risk of a race to issue proceedings in competing jurisdictions is real. This does not mean acting improperly but acting promptly and with clear advice about which forum best serves your interests and where an outcome will actually be enforceable.

Hemain Injunctions: Stopping Parallel Proceedings

Where one party takes steps in a foreign jurisdiction in a way that is considered oppressive or unconscionable, the English court can issue what is known as a Hemain injunction, named after a 1988 Court of Appeal case, temporarily preventing that party from progressing foreign proceedings whilst jurisdiction is determined here.

This is not a simple remedy to obtain. The bar is high: it is not enough that the other party is pursuing proceedings in a more favourable jurisdiction. The applicant must demonstrate deliberate and unfair manipulation of the process. There are also important limitations where EU member states are concerned as following the ECJ’s decision in Turner v Grovit, injunctions cannot be used to interfere with proceedings in EU courts where those proceedings pre-date the Brexit transition.

Divorce Abroad: Can You Still Claim in England?

If your partner has obtained a divorce in another country, that is not necessarily the end of the matter for financial claims. Part III of the Matrimonial and Family Proceedings Act 1984 allows a spouse to apply for financial relief in England and Wales even after an overseas divorce has been granted. The Supreme Court confirmed in Agbaje v Akinnoye-Agbaje [2010] UKSC 13, that receiving some financial provision abroad does not automatically bar a Part III application, (though the size of any overseas award will be a significant factor in whether the English court grants permission to proceed). This provision offers meaningful protection to those whose divorce has taken place in a jurisdiction with more limited financial remedies.

What to Do if You Are in This Position

If there is one thing worth taking from this article it is to take specialist advice early, ideally before you or your partner take any formal legal steps. Once proceedings are issued somewhere, the picture can change quickly.

It is also worth identifying all assets with an international dimension from the outset (not just obvious things like foreign property, but overseas pensions, bank accounts, and business interests). Understanding the nature of those assets, particularly pension schemes that operate very differently from UK provision, is essential before any decisions are made. In some cases, engaging lawyers in the relevant foreign jurisdictions at an early stage is equally important.

Lucy Macarthur

John Hooper & Co

10/03/2026