The decision to divorce is a difficult one, but it is made much more difficult when there is property, when there are children and when there are circumstances that implicate religious and cultural issues and global issues of jurisdiction.

In planning an international divorce one of the things first of all is to prioritize what are the concerns and issues of the individual client. You start first of all with is this a family situation in which there are children, and if there are children where are they. Are they in school abroad? Are they in a situation in which they currently travel back and forth between parents or grandparents? Are there cultural issues with respect to religion that have to be taken into consideration? Is there a desire to have the divorce consummated in such a way that religious and cultural concerns are met with sensitivity and discretion? That’s very important for individuals whose commercial and personal lives are very public, and in those circumstances especially when there is an international and jurisdictional aspect to a case understanding how the divorce and the decision to divorce will be dealt with and managed in all of those jurisdictions is extremely important.

Property is subject to the law where it is located throughout the world. A divorce agreement that is done in one country that purports to dissolve or distribute property located in many others has to go through a test, if you will, in each of those jurisdictions as to the enforceability of that agreement and as to the issues of, of resolution of any disputes with respect to valuation, with respect to the transferability of those assets. It has to be subject to the law where it is located and has to be subject to any future law with respect to how it’s going to be disposed of.

Those issues are complex. They can’t be done on the back of a napkin. They have to be done with the ability to look at, at legal opinions from the jurisdictions implicated and a comprehensive legal strategy has to be involved in order to provide meaningful advise to a client about the resolution.

One of the issues that is the most important in any international divorce is enforceability. The predictability with respect to the arrangements to be made with respect to children, support of children, support of spouses, resolution of visitation issues, protection of the relationship that children have with grandparents and extended family, which may be located in, in alternate jurisdictions has to be considered.

It’s amazing how many times I will sit in a, in a negotiation being conducted with clients where the assumptions that they have made, they don’t speak about until after the agreement is done and then there is suddenly conflict about the fact that no, the children aren’t going to be able to go back to visit grandma in, in a country, because of the legal problems or concerns which may be raised because of the law of that country. Those issues should always be addressed as an initial proposition. If they are hard to resolve the time to do it is not after the ink is on the paper, the time to do it is as part of a comprehensive global strategy. Any resolution in order to be able to allow the parties to continue to live globally has to be a global resolution.

Most importantly the issues of expectations of the parties have to realistic. Very often there may be a, a knee-jerk reaction that I will litigate my divorce in this jurisdiction and I know I’m going to be able to get a good result. I’ve talked to a local lawyer, they’ve promised this to me. That’s correct. They may be, they may get absolutely excellent advise and if they want to stay in that country and they never want to leave and they never want to conduct business abroad and they never want to have assets abroad then there is no need to look beyond the, the advise of a local lawyer.

However, if they are going to live their lives globally, if they’re going to have property located in a number of countries, if they’re going to travel with their children, then they are going to need to have a broader international perspective.

International divorce planning allows a client and their private lawyer, if possible, to sit down and talk about what are the issues that are the most important to them, to prioritize those issues and then to develop an overall strategy which deals with the enforceability and distribution of property on a global basis.