Act Conflict of Law Rules for

Marital Relationships

Act of 16 September 1993 regarding a regulation for conflicts of laws in respect of personal legal relations between spouses and of their relations with regard to property not covered by their matrimonial property regime

Article 1 Law applicable to the personal legal relationship between the spouses
- 1. The personal legal relations between the spouses themselves are governed:
a. by the law of the State of the common nationality of the spouses, or in the absence of a common nationality,
b. by the law of the State where they both have their habitual residence, or in the absence of a common habitual residence;
c. by the law of the State with which, taken all circumstances into account, they are most closely connected.
- 2. The provisions in the first paragraph, under point (a) [referring to the common nationality of the spouses], are not applicable where the spouses have more than one common nationality.
- 3. Where, as a result of a change of one of the circumstances mentioned in the first paragraph, the application of the provisions of that paragraph leads to the application of another law than the one applicable previously, that other law will be applicable as of the date of that change.

Article 2 Law applicable to costs of the household
The question whether and to what extent a spouse is liable for an obligation which the other spouse has entered into on behalf of the ordinary household, will be governed, if that other spouse and the opposite party both had their habitual residence in the same State at the moment on which they entered into that obligation, by the law of that State.

Article 3 Law applicable to the necessary consent of the other spouse for performing (specific) juridical acts
Whether a spouse needs the other spouse's consent to perform a (specific) juridical act, and if so, in which form this consent should be granted, and whether the required consent can be replaced by a decision of a court or another authority and which legal effects arise when the required consent is lacking, is governed by the law of the State where the other spouse has his habitual residence at the moment on which the juridical act in question was performed.

Article 4 Of no importance is the law applicable to the matrimonial property regime or to the personal legal relationship
The provisions of Articles 2 and 3 are applicable irrespective of the law that governs the matrimonial property regime of the spouses and irrespective of the law applicable to the personal legal relationship between the spouses.

Article 5 Entry into force
This Act enters into force on a date to be set by Royal Decree [1 January 1994].

Article 6 Citation
This Act may be cited as the Act Conflict of Law Rules for Marital Relationships.