Law Commission Publishes Marital Property Agreements Consultation
Tuesday 11 January 2011
In recent years there has been strong support for a change in the law calling for pre-nuptial agreements to be made legally binding.
The Law Commission has today launched a consultation paper, asking for views on a range of potential options for reforming the law of pre-nuptial, post-nuptial and separation agreements. The paper comes just a few months after the historic Supreme Court judgment of Radmacher vs Granatino, which many had thought paved the way for pre-nups to become binding.
The consultation paper is viewed by many as a first step toward making prenuptial agreements binding under English Law. The consultation paper sets out the challenge of reforming the law in such a way that gives couples greater financial certainty whilst protecting the vulnerable from entering into unfair agreements. However one area of concern has always been the fate of children, particularly thise born after the parties enter into prenuptial agreements. The welfare of children during and after divorce has always been an integral concern of the English legal system in relation to divorce. The consultation from the Law Commission closes on 11 April 2011.
The consultation documents can be downloaded and viewed from here:
Marital Property Agreement Consultation – published 11 January 2011