Israeli Divorce Based on Get Not Recognized in New York

Posted on May 20, 2008 by Daniel Clement
As reported on Law.com, a Brooklyn judge refused to recognize the validity of a divorce granted by an Israeli court. The Israeli divorce was based upon a “get,” a religious decree of divorce granted by a rabbi.

The Court found that allowing a get to serve as the basis of a valid divorce would provide an end-run around the New York's fault-based divorce laws.

"If this court were to sanction the utilization of a 'Get' to circumvent the constitutional requirement that only the Supreme Court can grant a civil divorce, then a party who obtains a 'Get' in New York could register it in a foreign jurisdiction and potentially, later on, rely on the 'Get' to obtain a civil divorce in New York thereby rendering New York State's Constitutional scheme as to a civil divorce ineffectual," Supreme Court Justice Jeffrey S. Sunshine of Brooklyn ruled in Tsirlin v. Tsirlin, 20542/0.

Commentators have found this to be a curious decision.

It's most unusual for a domestic court to look at the reasons behind a foreign divorce decree.

It'll be interesting to see how the decision not to give comity plays out in other situations. How would it apply when you have an administrative divorce from Japan, which is alien to our system, or a divorce from a country that allows divorce for grounds that we find unusual?"
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Divorce Rates Soar Even in Saudi Arabia

Posted on September 7, 2007 by Daniel Clement
Divorce is not only rampant in America. Crossroads Arabia reports that divorce is so prevalent in Saudi Arabia that divorce lawyers are turning away new clients.

Sixty-two per cent of marriages in the western region in Saudi Arabia end in divorce, with a large percentage of those being less than 25 years of age.

The number of young divorcees is increasing. Some are getting divorced after one or two years of married life. Coming across a 20-something divorcee is not strange anymore. Khaled Abu Rashid, a Saudi lawyer, said that with a huge number of divorce cases, law firms in Saudi Arabia are burdened with so much work that sometimes they have to refuse taking cases. He said that divorce among young couples was increasing and added that a lot of his clients are between 18 and 22 years of age and that many disputes revolve around child custody.
There are certainly cultural reasons for rampant divorce rate; many of the marriages are arranged. Regardless, I cannot help but wonder if the law in Saudi Arabia is as backwards as New York’s which requires parties to prove marital fault. 
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