Divorce of citizens of different countries belongs to the category of cases with a foreign element – the provisions of private international law decide which country’s law will apply to them. In the case of divorces between citizens of Poland and Ukraine, the relevant provisions of private international law are contained in the Agreement between the Republic of Poland and Ukraine on legal assistance and legal relations in civil and criminal matters, concluded in Kiev on May 24, 1993.
Law and competent authority in the case
According to Article 26 of the aforementioned agreement, the law of the country whose citizenship both spouses have at the time of initiating the proceedings (i.e.: filing a divorce suit) has priority in divorce cases. If the spouses do not have common citizenship, then the decisive factor in determining the law applicable to the divorce, as well as the body before which the proceedings should be conducted, will be their common place of residence (and therefore, if the spouses live in the same country, the law of that country applies and its bodies will conduct the proceedings). Finally, if the spouses live in the territory of two different countries, both Polish and Ukrainian bodies will be entitled to conduct divorce proceedings. The decisive factor will be which of them one of the spouses contacts first. The law applicable to the divorce will be the law of the country in which the divorce proceedings will be conducted. An important issue is that the court competent to rule on divorce is also competent to rule on parental authority and maintenance for minor children. Service of procedural documents
The authority of the state before which the divorce proceedings are pending may, if necessary, request the competent authority of the other state (of which one of the spouses is a citizen) to provide legal assistance, for example – in the matter of serving documents to a party in the proceedings. The authority requested to provide legal assistance serves documents in accordance with the legal provisions in force in its state, if the documents served have been drawn up in the official language of that state or if their certified translation has been attached. Otherwise, it serves documents to the party only if the party voluntarily accepts them.
Recognition of documents
It should be emphasized that documents that have been drawn up or certified in the proper form by the competent authority of one of the states, bearing the official seal and the signature of the authorized person, have evidentiary force in the territory of the other state without the need for legalization. This also applies to copies and translations of documents that have been certified by the competent authority. Furthermore, documents that are treated as official documents in the territory of one state are also considered as such in the territory of the other state.