English Law Commission Looking At Prenuptial Agreements
By Jeremy Morley
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a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp1.blogger.com/_ySg-RK3MUak/SFEpWN9aGVI/AAAAAAAAAx8/_MTSpkYyLp0/s1600-h/English+judge.jpg"img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 184px; height: 179px;" src="http://bp1.blogger.com/_ySg-RK3MUak/SFEpWN9aGVI/AAAAAAAAAx8/_MTSpkYyLp0/s200/English+judge.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5210991705525459282" border="0" //abr /span class="small2" style="font-size:78%;"span style=";font-family:Arial;color:black;" lang="EN"From /span/spanspan class="small2" style="font-size:78%;"span style="color:black;"Times Online/span/spanspan class="small2" style="font-size:78%;"span lang="EN"o:p/o:p/span/span p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 12pt;"span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:8;color:black;" lang="EN" span style="font-size:78%;"June 11, 2008/spano:p/o:p/span/p p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"span lang="EN" style="font-size:100%;"Pre-nuptial agreements between couples planning to marry could become legally binding under a review of the law being carried out by the Government's law reform body. o:p/o:p/span/p p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"span lang="EN" style="font-size:100%;"The inquiry announced today by the Law Commission is part of its latest programme of law reform, which is also looking at the law on intestacy, the laws governing residential care and level crossings. o:p/o:p/span/p p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"span lang="EN" style="font-size:100%;"At present pre-nuptial agreements are persuasive in the courts but not strictly legally binding. o:p/o:p/span/p p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"span lang="EN" style="font-size:100%;"But the Law Commission has ruled out looking at the law on the splitting of a couple's assets on divorce, despite calls by some judges that they should do so. o:p/o:p/span/p form style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);" !--#include file="m63-article-related-attachements.html"--!-- BEGIN: Module - M63 - Article Related Attachements -- /form form style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);" name="relatedLinksform" /form form style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);" name="relatedLinksform" /form p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"span lang="EN" style="font-size:100%;"!-- BEGIN: POLL --!--This block will execute if an article of type Poll is attached--!-- END : POLL --!-- BEGIN: DEBATE--!-- END: DEBATE--!-- END: Module - M63 - Article Related Attachements --Sir Terence Etherton, a High Court judge and the chairman of the Law Commission, said: "There is a recognition that the division of assets is an issue of considerable social importance and there is wide dissatisfaction with the current law. o:p/o:p/span/p p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"span lang="EN" style="font-size:100%;"?But we recognise that the issue is increasingly politicised and controversial." o:p/o:p/span/p p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"span lang="EN" style="font-size:100%;"Instead the Law Commission will examine in what circumstances courts should uphold the increasingly popular pre-nuptial contracts with the aim of drawing up a draft parliamentary Bill by 2012. o:p/o:p/span/p p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"span lang="EN" style="font-size:100%;"Sir Terence also predicted that existing proposals by the Law Commission which give greater legal rights to cohabiting couples would become law in the not too distance future. o:p/o:p/span/p p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"span lang="EN" style="font-size:100%;""We are lagging behind st1:country-region st="on"Australia/st1:country-region, st1:country-region st="on"New Zealand/st1:country-region, st1:country-region st="on"Canada/st1:country-region and st1:country-region st="on"st1:place st="on"Scotland/st1:place/st1:country-region. There will be legislation because we are clearly so far behind other countries." o:p/o:p/span/p p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"span lang="EN" style="font-size:100%;"Post-marital agreements, entered into by couples after marriage to determine the division of their assets after divorce, would also be examined, the Law Commission said. o:p/o:p/span/p pspan style=";font-size:10;color:black;" lang="EN" span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:100%;" Lawyers welcomed the plans to look at pre-nuptial contacts but expressed concern that the plans could also be left on the shelf./span o:p/o:p/span/p
