Jeremy
D. Morley*
1.
Grenada is not a signatory to the 1980
Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction.
2.
There are no bilateral agreements in force
between Grenada and the United States concerning international parental child
abduction.
3.
The United Kingdom Matrimonial Causes Act
1973, including all subsequent amendments thereto, as well as England’s Family
Proceedings Rules, are deemed to apply to Grenada and to be in full force and
effect in Grenada by
virtue of section 11 of the West Indies Associated States Supreme Court
(Grenada) Act.
4.
If parents
are legally married they share the custody of their children. If they are not
married, custody has traditionally been granted to the mother unless there are
known facts of inappropriate behavior, mental or social problems.
5.
Custody orders and judgments of foreign
courts are not necessarily enforceable in Grenada.
6.
In cases where one parent has been granted
custody of a child, the other parent is usually granted visitation rights. If a
custodial parent fails to allow visitation, the non-custodial parent may appeal
to the court.
7.
No exit visas are required to leave
Grenada.
8.
Prenuptial and postnuptial agreements are
likely to be enforced in Grenada but only to the somewhat limited extent that
they are enforced under English law. In one case, the Eastern Caribbean Supreme
Court in the Court of Appeal, citing the seminal cases of MacLeod, [2008] UKPC 64 and Radmacher,
[2010] UKSC 42, ruled that a contract executed by the parties as
a postnuptial agreement could be enforced like any other contract and due to
the court’s multifaceted jurisdiction, its power to review such a document was
not confined to the Matrimonial Causes Act.
9.
The
law on the division of assets upon a divorce
is based upon the provisions of Sections 24 and 25 of the Matrimonial Causes
Act, particularly as interpreted by the U.K. courts in the seminal cases of White, [2001]
1 All ER 1 Miller,[2006] UKHL 24 and Charman, [2007] EWCA Civ 503. In particular the Eastern Caribbean Court has ruled in a
Grenada case that the purpose of the court’s discretionary powers in this
regard is to achieve “fairness” in the financial arrangements of the parties on
or after a divorce, in light of the “equal sharing” and “sharing entitlement”
principles of the U.K. authorities, derived from the “basic concept of equality
permeating a marriage as understood today” and the “modern, non-discriminatory
conclusion” that the proper evaluation of the parties’ different contributions
to the welfare of the family should generally lead to an equal division of their property unless there was
good reason for the division to be unequal.”
* Jeremy D. Morley is an international family lawyer
in New York who works with family lawyers throughout the United States, the
Caribbean and globally. He is the author of two leading treatises on
international family law, International
Family Law Practice and The Hague Abduction
Convention. He
frequently testifies as an expert witness on the child custody law and legal
system of countries around the world, including India, Japan, China and Western
Europe. He may be reached at jmorley@international-divorce.com.