A divorce granted outside the EU: recognition, effect in France or exequatur?

On July 3, 2026, the private international law unit of the Institut du droit de la famille et du patrimoine (IDFP), a French family and estate law institute, held its question box session (boîte à questions): its members answer live the questions that lawyers and notaries have sent them about their cases. With Raluca Lolev, a member of the Paris bar, I prepared the answer on how foreign divorce judgments take effect in France. Here are the key takeaways, with selected excerpts from the training materials.

The question

A divorce by mutual consent was granted in a country outside the European Union. One former spouse asks a French court for exequatur. Can the other raise, as a defense, that the divorce has no effect in France (non-opposabilité)? In other words, is checking that the divorce has no effect in France enough to defeat an exequatur request?

To answer, three concepts that practice often confuses must first be distinguished: recognition, effect in France (opposabilité) and exequatur.

Three concepts not to confuse

Automatic recognition (reconnaissance de plein droit), derived from the 2007 Cornelissen ruling, allows a foreign divorce judgment to take effect in France without prior exequatur, on three conditions: the indirect jurisdiction of the foreign court (the dispute has a characterized connection with the country whose court was seized, and the choice of that court was not fraudulent); compliance with French international public policy, both procedural and substantive; and the absence of fraud on the law.

Recognition does not rule out review by a French court. Such review takes the form of an action for a declaration of recognition (action en opposabilité), which establishes the judgment’s international validity so that it can no longer be challenged, or an action for a declaration of non-recognition (action en inopposabilité), which establishes its irregularity and deprives it of any effect in France. Review may be sought directly, in a stand-alone action, or incidentally, for instance when a foreign judgment is invoked to block divorce proceedings in France.

Finally, exequatur gives the foreign judgment enforceable force. It is required whenever enforcement against assets or coercive measures are needed: collecting a compensatory allowance (prestation compensatoire) set abroad, enforcing visitation and accommodation rights. The court checks the same three conditions. The request falls within the jurisdiction of the judicial court (tribunal judiciaire) sitting as a single judge and is brought by summons.

Court approval or private act: the nature of the foreign act decides

Divorce by mutual consent takes very different forms from one country to another. The most common situation outside the EU is consent approved by a court: there is then a judgment, and automatic recognition fully applies. Exequatur is not needed for the dissolution of the marriage to take effect in France, but it becomes necessary if something must be enforced.

Other countries allow a purely contractual divorce, close to the French divorce by mutual consent. There is then no judgment but an act: the Cornelissen case law does not apply directly, and the rules on recognition of foreign authentic instruments govern (formal validity, authority’s competence, compliance with public policy).

Exequatur and non-recognition: two opposite actions

If the foreign divorce meets the Cornelissen conditions, it is already recognized in France: an exequatur request is not needed merely for recognition. The party who refuses the divorce’s effects may bring an action for a declaration of non-recognition, based on the decision’s international irregularity. And if non-recognition has already been declared, an exequatur request concerning the same decision runs up against res judicata and must be declared inadmissible: the two actions are antithetical.

Two practical nuances. First, the fact that the divorce itself has no effect in France does not necessarily prevent exequatur of its financial provisions: compensatory allowance, division of property, support. Second, against an exequatur request filed after a non-recognition ruling, the strategy is to raise the plea of res judicata as an inadmissibility objection first, and dismissal on the merits in the alternative. When the goal is a stable situation, binding on everyone, a direct action is preferable.

Sessions

• July 3, 2026Five topics: international successions (Morgane Le Gall, Laïla Gssime, Elisa Muller), nullity of marriage (Maxime Eppler, Morghân Peltier), law applicable to divorce (Mathieu Rouillard), circulation of foreign divorce judgments (Raluca Lolev and myself), civil procedure with a foreign element (Joana Silveira, Stéphanie Dupont-Baillon).
• December 12, 2025The unit’s eleven members, myself included, answered live the questions of lawyers and notaries about their international family cases: international divorce, children, matrimonial property regimes, successions.

Key takeaways

1. 1Recognized automaticallyA foreign divorce judgment takes effect in France without exequatur, provided it is valid.
2. 2Three conditionsIndirect jurisdiction of the foreign court, compliance with international public policy, no fraud.
3. 3Exequatur to enforceIt remains essential to enforce money awards or visitation rights in France.
4. 4Identify the nature of the actCourt-approved judgment or purely contractual act: the recognition rules differ.
5. 5Non-recognition closes the doorOnce declared, it makes an exequatur request concerning the same decision inadmissible.

Training excerpts

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.