18th January 2011

The Law Commission's public consultation on the future of pre-nuptial agreements has commenced with the publication of the Marital Property Agreements paper. The Commission will accept responses from family law solicitors and all interested parties until April 11th 2011.

The term "marital property agreements" is used to refer to pre-nuptial, post-nuptial and separation agreements, and the paper aims to review current legislation in relation to ancillary relief and marital property agreements.

The paper also reviews the Supreme Court's judgement, made in October, in Radmacher v Granatino, whilst examining relevant legal procedure in other countries.

Questions are then asked regarding manifold aspects of marital property agreements and sets out the required formalities a couple would have to comply with before a pre- or post-nuptial agreement would be considered binding.

David Allison, Chair of Resolution, the family lawyers' association, said in a public response to the commencement of the consultation, "Despite the historic Supreme Court judgment in October [marital property agreements] still are not binding under English law. We strongly believe that pre-nuptial agreements should be legally binding and welcome this consultation as the first step in that process.

"We will be making the case to the Law Commission that pre-nuptial agreements should be considered binding as long as the needs of any children are satisfied and provided that they do not result in injustice," he added.

The consultation paper can be downloaded from the Law Commission website.