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We deal with the main fields of International Family Law

• Divorces and breakdowns of stable couples of different nationalities. Problems and issues to bear in mind.
• International Abduction. Hague Convention of 1980.
• Convention on the Rights of the Child of 1989. The principle of the best interest of the child in Spain and in Europe.
• Enforcement of maintenance obligation. Hague Convention of 1996.
• International Succession Law (preparation and execution of will, succession planning, in national and international succession proceedings, living wills).
• Premarital agreements
• Marriage settlements
• Custody of children
• Visiting rights

Today, international family situations are becoming more numerous. The freedom of movement of people in Europe, the new geography of borders and, more globally, the phenomenon of globalization, facilitate the movement of people and, consequently, contribute to the formation of family units in which there are different nationalities. In these cases, difficulties arise when a crisis has to be resolved and a divorce or separation is to proceed. What happens if the members of the couple are of different nationalities, or live in different countries or have properties in more than one country? The complexity of situations can be enormous. It is necessary to determine which courts are competent to deal with the divorce, it is necessary to define which is the applicable law in each case, it is necessary to understand well the existing correspondences between the different national legislations ... And, even more, very often there are several possibilities, all of them perfectly feasible and legal, so we must choose the one that is most convenient among them.

Therefore, before a specific case, it will be necessary to determine:

• the competent court to deal with divorce, separation or resolve the crisis of the stable couple.
   
• the law that applies to divorce, separation or matrimonial nullity (Spanish legislation does not require the existence of a cause, for example, but other laws do)
   
• the law applicable to parental responsibility
   
• the law applicable to maintenance obligations and, in most cases, also to the compensatory pension
   
• the law applicable to the matrimonial economic regime
   

CHILD ABDUCTION

Existing international regulations are numerous and, often, complicated to understand and interpret. That is why, in these cases, it is absolutely convenient to have the advice of an expert lawyer in International Family Law. Our job is to offer the best alternatives in each specific case, after a detailed and complete study of the regulations, conventions and international treaties, as well as the internal legislation of the countries involved.

This new international reality has also led to a significant increase in what is known as international child abduction. International child abduction occurs when a child is unlawfully transferred to a country other than where it habitually resides, violating the custody right attributed to a person or institution, or in cases where the father or mother has moved with the child to reside in another country, thus preventing the other parent who has the right to visit from exercising it.

Usually, these are situations of great legal complexity that require specialized legal advice. The mechanisms of international legal assistance usually work effectively in the case of countries that have signed the Hague Convention of 1996, or apply the European Convention of 1980 on the civil aspects of the International Subtraction of Minors and the Regulation 2201/2003 of the European Union. Otherwise, the legal complication of the matter can reach very high levels.

APPROVAL OF FOREIGN JUDGMENTS

A judgment issued in a foreign country does not have to have an automatic validity in Spain, in the same way that a Spanish sentence is not automatically effective in any corner of the world. Although, within the European Union, most countries recognize the immediate effectiveness of judicial decisions taken by the courts of another member country, this does not happen in absolutely all cases and, especially, it does not occur when it comes to a judicial decision taken by a court of a non-member state. In these cases, it is necessary to follow the so-called exequatur procedure, whose purpose is to obtain recognition of the validity of a judgment issued by a foreign court in order to allow its execution in Spain. It is not a new procedure in which the sentence that was issued abroad can be reviewed. It is simply verified that the foreign resolution meets the requirements to be valid and, therefore, can be recognized and executed in Spain.

Codina Legal has a specialized department in Banking Law and Mortgage Law. Our goal is to defend the rights of consumers and small investors against the abuses and bad practices of financial institutions.

A good part of these bad banking practices consisted in the commercialization of complex financial products to small investors who did not have the knowledge or the necessary information to know exactly what they were signing.

Currently, the law allows to obtain the nullity of these contracts and the return of all amounts paid by the consumer, because of the possible existence of vices of consent or lack of contractual transparency,

Also, in recent years we have seen how mortgage claims have multiplied, most of them due to the inclusion of abusive conditions for customers.

BANKING LAW

• Claim Banco Popular shares
• Claim of preferred
• Multi-currency mortgages
• Pre-contractual counseling
• Claims for abusive cards (Revolving)
• Refinancing of credits

MORTGAGE LAW

• Mortgage expenses claim
• Foreclosures
• Stoppage of auctions and foreclosures
• Floor clauses
• Dations in payment
• Mortgage refinancing
• Nullity of mortgage clauses
• IRPH
• Pre-contractual legal advice
• Rental agreements with banking entities
• Electronic auctions