Sahyouni/Mamisch; the Court of Justice EU on islamic unilateral divorces

In this case, the EU Court of Justice has ruled that the Rome III Regulation (EU Regulation No. 1259/2010) does not apply to a unilateral extrajudicial marriage dissolution (repudiation) pronounced in front of a religious court in Syria. By taking this decision, the Court no longer needed to verify whether Syrian law did grant spouses equal access to divorce on grounds of their sex (Article 10 Rome III). However, the Advocate-General has expressed himself on the interpretation of Article 10 Rome III. This article argues that the abstract approach advocated by the Advocate General in the assessment of Islamic repudiations is not the direction the EU should follow. In view of the still existing diversity in recognition policies within the EU, this approach would not, or at least not yet, contribute to the free movement of decisions taken in EU countries with regard to unilateral extrajudicial divorces from third countries