Family law and matrimonial property: a 24-hour course at the ISD

From November 2019 to January 2020, I taught family law and matrimonial property law at the Institut supérieur du droit (ISD), in six four-hour sessions. Here are the key takeaways.

Six sessions

The course started with the different forms of partnership, cohabitation, civil partnership (PACS) and marriage, and their financial consequences, before presenting the main family disputes: divorce, parental responsibility, annulment of marriage and parentage.

A full session was devoted to international families: jurisdiction and applicable law for divorce, parental responsibility, maintenance and matrimonial property. Then came the compensatory payment (prestation compensatoire: legal criteria, calculation methods, taxation, simulations), property relations between spouses and the options offered by marriage contracts.

Property division, then practice

The fifth session presented the rules for dividing matrimonial property: when the divorce takes effect, the division framework, recoveries, reimbursements to or from the community (récompenses), claims between spouses and the joint-ownership account. Students then applied them to simulated divisions under universal community, statutory community, separation of property and participation in acquests.

The final session was built on a comprehensive international divorce case: oral argument, then review of the written submissions. Five corrected case studies punctuated the course.

Key takeaways

1. 1Forms of partnershipCohabitation, PACS and marriage have different financial effects.
2. 2International familiesCourt and law are determined issue by issue.
3. 3Compensatory paymentCriteria, calculation methods and taxation.
4. 4Property divisionA method: framework, recoveries, reimbursements, claims.

General information. This account of a talk reflects only my personal opinion and is not legal advice. The cases mentioned are fictional, or inspired by real cases, modified and anonymized. Law as of 2019-2020.