Family Law

For decades, South African law used the husband’s legal home at the time of marriage to decide which country’s law governed a couple’s financial and property rights when they had ties to more than one country. A recent Western Cape High Court judgment declared that rule unconstitutional and introduced a gender-neutral framework for deciding which country’s law applies. Courts elsewhere in the country are not bound by the judgment but are likely to follow it.

Couples who sign antenuptial contracts often believe they have permanently settled the question of money in their marriage. What is mine stays mine. What is yours stays yours.
Not so fast. The Constitutional Court recently expanded access to redistribution orders for spouses married out of community of property without accrual, particularly where strict enforcement of an antenuptial contract would produce unfair financial consequences at divorce. A 2025 KwaZulu-Natal High Court judgment shows what the redistribution remedy can deliver in practice.

“For what is wedlock forced but a hell, An age of discord and continual strife?” (William Shakespeare in Henry VI Part I) This article is a balm for anyone unfortunate…

“A family name holds the music of generations – it’s the first inheritance we receive.” (Attributed to Irish poet-philosopher John O’Donohue) The Constitutional Court has just confirmed (with some significant…

“You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.” (C.S. Lewis) Divorce is traumatic, to the extent that it’s widely…

“Grandparents, like heroes, are as necessary to a child’s growth as vitamins.” (Quoted in the judgment below) One of the greatest tragedies of family fall-outs will always be the effect…