Dutch experiment with easy divorce dropped

THE HAGUE – A legal novelty in the Netherlands which never gained traction in other countries is the so-called flitsscheiding. This supposedly easy, uncontested divorce procedure in force between 2001 and 2009 was used by 30,000 couples. This step-by-step reversal of a marriage first turned a legal marriage into a registered partnership with the intent to then announce an end to the partnership. This procedure had nothing in place to regulate the care of children from the abandoned marriage. In 2008, there were 2,500 children affected who lived at home. The flitsscheiding itself was abandoned last year after it failed to receive recognition in law beyond Dutch borders.