One of the problems related to emigration is the issue of divorce outside Poland. Questions may arise as to whether a divorce decree issued abroad will have any effects in the Polish legal system. These questions concern not only the Polish legal order, but all countries in the world.
However, due to the free movement of people, this problem is particularly relevant for European Union citizens. Therefore, this issue was regulated at the EU level by means of a regulation, i.e. an act binding on all EU member states.
These issues are regulated by Regulation 2019/1111 of the Council of the European Union of 25 June 2019 on jurisdiction, the recognition and enforcement of judgments in matrimonial matters and in matters of parental responsibility and on international child abduction.
Pursuant to Art. 30 section 1 of the Regulation, the general principle is that a judgment given in one Member State is recognized in other Member States without the need for special proceedings.
As provided in section 2 does not require special proceedings for the purpose of making entries in the civil status registers of a Member State on the basis of a decision on divorce, separation or marriage annulment given in another Member State, against which no further appeal is available under the law of that Member State. (That is, from a judgment that has already become final.)
This means that a divorce judgment from a court of a Member State should, in principle, be recognized ex officio in every other Member State. Thanks to this, for example, it is possible to mention a divorce in a marriage certificate without any additional court procedure in Poland.
To effectively invoke a judgment given in another Member State, the following must be submitted to the national authority:
- copy of the judgment of a foreign court;
- certificate issued by a foreign court on an officially specified form.
The certificate is issued at the request of a party. They shall be completed and issued in the language in which the judgment was drawn up. The certificate may also be issued in another official language of the European Union institutions that one of the parties has requested, but the court is not obliged to do so.
Moreover, although the certificate is officially defined, the national authority before which such a certificate is presented may request the production of a sworn translation of the certificate as well as of the judgment itself.
The regulation also sets out the grounds for refusing to recognize a judgment of a court of another Member State. Recognition may be refused when:
- the recognition of such a judgment is manifestly contrary to the public policy of the Member State in which recognition is invoked;
- in the case of a judgment given in absentia – if the opposing party was not served with the document initiating the proceedings or an equivalent document in time and in a manner enabling it to prepare its defense, unless it is established that the opposing party unambiguously agreed with the judgment;
- if the judgment is irreconcilable with a judgment given in proceedings between the same parties in the Member State in which recognition is invoked; or
- if the judgment is irreconcilable with an earlier judgment given in another Member State or in a third State between the same parties, provided that the earlier judgment satisfies the conditions necessary for its recognition in the Member State in which recognition is invoked.
To sum up, in the event of dissolution of a marriage in another Member State (either a marriage concluded in Poland or abroad), the judgment of another Member State will, as a rule, have legal effects in the Polish legal space. Likewise, on the same principle, divorce judgments issued in Poland will be effective in other European Union member states.