SPAIN Law and Practice Contributed by: Amparo Arbáizar, Arbáizar Abogados
1. Divorce 1.1 Grounds, Timeline, Service and Process The grounds for divorce are the same for all marriages and same-sex marriages. Civil partnerships are not considered marriages in Spanish family law, and their status is not regulated in the Spanish Civil Code or at a national level. Several autonomous communities in Spain have established their own specific laws regarding civil partnerships, including provisions for a partnership register. These communities are: • Andalucía; • Aragón; • Asturias; the Balearic Islands;
the court, the timescale will be longer because foren ‑ sic psychologists are overloaded with work. Uncontested divorce proceedings are much quick ‑ er: between two and six months to obtain a Divorce Absolute . Each court’s head of the court administration ( Let- rado de la Administración de Justicia ) is responsible for the service of documents and other acts of com ‑ munication. Once a party has filed a divorce petition, the court will admit it and issue divorce proceedings, ordering service upon the other party. A court’s agent will serve the other party at their residence in person. Service by a particular method is also possible. The petitioner can request the court that the private court’s clerk ( procurator ) personally serve the divorce petition. Hague Convention Spain is a party to the Hague Convention on the service abroad of judicial documents signed on 15 November 1965. A form must be filled out and sent to the Spanish Central Authority with the divorce peti ‑ tion and documents. The Central Authority forwards the document to the Dean Judge ( Juzgado Decano ) of the Courts of First Instance within the judicial ter ‑ ritory ( partido judicial ) where the document is to be served. This court office is competent for distributing the different proceedings (including service of docu ‑ ments) among the judicial authorities that fall under its jurisdiction. Although a different form of service is not prohibited in Spanish domestic law in principle, the Central Author ‑ ity does not usually receive a special request by the applicant for service by a particular method. Between member states of the European Union, Reg ‑ ulation (EU) 2020/1784 of 25 November 2020 on the service in the member states of judicial and extrajudi ‑ cial documents in civil or commercial matters (recast) is applicable. Religious marriages are recognised in Spain, as set out in Article 60 of the Civil Code. Catholic, Protestant, Jewish and Muslim marriages are recognised in Spain.
• the Basque Country; • the Canary Islands; • Castilla-La Mancha; • Castilla y León; • Extremadura; • Galicia; • Madrid; and • Valencia.
In contrast, Catalonia only offers municipal registers for civil partnerships, and the existence of a partner ‑ ship is verified through an authentic or notarial deed. Each autonomous community regulates the register in a different way, and the effects of registration range from being simply declarative to having practical equivalence with marriage. Some autonomous com ‑ munities do not provide for such a regional register. “No-Fault” Divorce Spain is a “no-fault” divorce jurisdiction. There are neither grounds for divorce nor a required period of separation. One or both parties can issue separation/ divorce proceedings three months after the marriage. These three months will not be required in cases where there is a danger to the petitioner or the children. The timescale for a first-instance divorce decree is approximately a year, although it is very different from court to court. The appeal may take about one year. If any party requests a psychological forensic report via
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