Marital property in Scotland/Schottisches Güterrecht

Michael Herman in the Times reports that the Scottish postal worker who won £34 m in the Euro-Lottery is giving some to her husband, from whom she is separated prior to divorce. Under Scottish law, the date of separation marks the division of marital property, whereas under English law, it is the date of divorce.

Scott Cochrane, a family law partner at Brodies, said: “Scottish law takes the concept of a clean break on separation very seriously. Even if the Cunninghams did not formally divide their assets on separation, if they now decided to divorce the courts will use the time they separated as the key point and ignore what has happened since.
“The fact that Mr Cunningham, according to reports, has not lived with his wife for several years is a slam dunk: he would have no hope.”

(Whether you believe her maiden name is Kelly or Cunningham depends on what paper you read)

8 thoughts on “Marital property in Scotland/Schottisches Güterrecht

  1. It’s more the emotive mention of “human rights” in all the news reports Margaret. The Brits these days hate to think that anyone has human rights…why do you think I never, ever want to live there again? It’s obvious that, despite having an Italian passport, he is not Italian in the sense that he grew up in the UK, doesn’t speak Italian and developed his problems in the UK. I guess it’s also the “revenge” culture rampant in the UK.

    Paul

  2. I really, really don’t get this either, and it worries me, mainly because of the barely disguised xenophobia displayed by large sections of the general public and the press.

  3. Paul: If they talked about human rights, wouldn’t you be the first one to suggest they are being too PC? (My ‘gdr’ was swallowed because I don’t know how to do angled brackets in html)

    C

  4. I don’t think human rights have anything to do with PC culture Margaret. As you know, I’m not exactly a fan of the EU or the spread of EU legislation but I think maybe human rights legislation is one of the few good things to have emerged from the EU. Human rights are something everyone should enjoy, be they in the EU or not. I too detest the stirring up of hysteria in the media – I don’t rant and rave about everything you know…

    Paul

  5. Well, I am quite pro-EU. I know there is a lot of bureaucracy, but there is a dreadful anti-EU campaign in the British press. I suppose it was the EU that was the reason for the ECHR being enshrined in British law? since we had this Convention, which is not EU law, all along anyway, but it used to be necessary to exhaust the remedies in the English courts and then go to Strasbourg many years later.
    The Independent also has an article on the human rights aspects of this case, and another on how the Home Office tried to stop the key witnesses to Chindamo’s good character from being heard.

  6. Deportation’s a vain hope, but perhaps worth a pop in this case. Italy is an enthusiastic supporter on paper of European human rights policy, so surely residence there would make both him and bleeding hearts everywhere happy. Just don’t send him to Barcelona, thank you very much.

  7. I think his father, whom he doesn’t know, is a member of the Mafia. I presume that at this rate he will have to have some face-altering plastic surgery. So it would be unfair to deport him to Italy, where they have now worked out that you can still identify people by their DNA.

Leave a Reply to c Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.