Divorce of persons with citizenship of different countries is classified as cases with a foreign element, which means that the law that will apply to it is determined by the provisions of private international law. For divorce cases between citizens of Poland and Russia, the relevant provisions of private international law can be found in the Agreement between the Republic of Poland and the Russian Federation on legal assistance and legal relations in civil and criminal matters of 16 September 1996.
Law and competent authority in the case
According to art. 26 of the aforementioned Agreement, in divorce cases the law of the country whose citizenship both spouses have at the time of filing the application (and therefore in Poland: filing the action) for divorce is applied. However, if spouses with citizenship of one of the countries reside in the other country, the applicable law will still be the law of the country of their common citizenship, but the proceedings may also be conducted before the authorities of the country of their place of residence. For example: in the case of a divorce of spouses living in Poland, one of whom has only Russian citizenship, and the other has Russian and Polish citizenship, Russian law will be the applicable law, but divorce proceedings may be initiated and conducted both in a court in Russia and in Poland (depending on which court the action is filed with). However, the Polish court would have to apply Russian law in this case. In the case of a divorce of spouses who do not have the same citizenship, the key factor in determining the applicable law and the authority to conduct the proceedings will be the common place of residence of the parties. This means that if the spouses live in the same country, the law of that country will apply to them and its authorities will be responsible for conducting the proceedings. On the other hand, if the spouses live in two different countries, both Polish and Russian authorities will have the right to conduct divorce proceedings. In such a case, the decisive factor will be which of them one of the spouses applies to first. The law applicable to the divorce will be the law of the country in which the divorce proceedings are conducted. Another important aspect is that the court competent to rule on divorce proceedings is also competent to rule on parental authority and maintenance for the minor children of the parties.
Service of procedural documents
If necessary, the authority of the state before which the divorce proceedings are pending may request the competent authority of the other state (of which one of the spouses is a citizen) to provide legal assistance, consisting, for example, in serving documents to the party to the proceedings. In such a case, the authority requested to provide legal assistance serves the documents in the manner accepted in its state, provided that the documents served have been drawn up in the official language of that state or a certified translation has been attached. Otherwise, the authority may serve the documents on the party only if the party voluntarily accepts them.