Divorce Law in Ireland – Facilitating or Frustrating the Resolution Process

Since the enactment of the Divorce Act in 1996, members of the Irish judiciary have been faced with a number of difficulties regarding the interpretation and application of its provisions. This article considers the approach of both the legislature and the judiciary to the issues of clean break, pre-existing separation agreements and prenuptial agreements, and in so doing reveals their failure to recognize sufficiently the importance of existing agreements and highlights the dangers that are an inevitable consequence of the widely framed powers of the judiciary.