North Carolina Court Recognizes Ghanaian Proxy Marriage
A marriage celebrated outside the United States will generally be recognized by a court within the United States if two requirements are met. First, the couple must have satisfied all of the legal requirements of the place of celebration. Second, the marriage cannot be contrary to the public policy of the recognizing state. The North…
Continue ReadingChoice-of-Law Clauses and Marital Property Law
In a recent law review article, I criticized a unanimous decision of the Washington Supreme Court that enforced the choice-of-law clause in a contract to which only one spouse was a party to determine which jurisdiction’s law governed an issue relating to marital property. In this blog post, I first provide a concise account of…
Continue ReadingInternational Custody Jurisdiction, Human Rights, and Legislative Change
The Court of Appeals of Washington State recently issued an unpublished opinion that will serve as a benchmark for parents who flee certain countries with their children, seeking safe harbor in the United States (In re AlHaidari (Fearing, CJ)). In re AlHaidari Bethany AlHaidari, a U.S. citizen, married Ghassan AlHaidari, a Saudi citizen, in Saudi…
Continue ReadingA Primer on International Family Law
[This post is one in a series of primers on different topics in transnational litigation. To access other primers, please click on the “Topics” drop-down menu above.] International family law focuses on two discrete areas of international practice: (1) private international law, and (2) comparative family law. This area of practice is traditionally broken down…
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