This article was originally published by Lexis®PSL on 15/06/2020, and co-authored by Partner Amy Scollan and William Tyzack, barrister of Queen Elizabeth Building, and can be accessed as a PDF here and a link here. 

Private Client analysis: This analysis explores the decision of the president of the Family Division, Sir Andrew McFarlane, in X v Y. The case involved an application to rectify a decree of divorce granted many years ago, after it was realised that the divorce had dissolved the ‘wrong’ marriage—the parties having gone through two ceremonies, firstly in Spain, and a year later in England. Their subsequent divorce purported to dissolve the second (English) marriage, thereby leaving (or at least giving the impression of leaving) the earlier Spanish marriage alive and well.