Separation Agreement

Section 35: Dead Letter or Living Instrument? The Contractual Status of Agreements, and the Scope of the Court’s Power to Vary Them

[2026] 1 FRJ 5. This article reviews the legal status of agreements made between spouses, including their enforceability as actionable contracts, and the importance of the powers the courts have to vary or revoke such agreements.

Separation Agreements: Mostyn J’s Final Revolution?

Separation Agreements: Mostyn J’s Final Revolution?

Despite Mostyn J’s comment in one of his final cases, Baker v Baker [2023] EWFC 136, that it posed ‘no real issues of law’,[[1]] his judgment arguably sought to revolutionise the law on separation agreements. Whilst separation agreements have long been treated as one factor – albeit a weighty

Susan Nancy Baker v Andrew Hartill Baker [2023] EWFC 136

Judgment date: 11 August 2023 https://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWFC/HCJ/2023/136.html Mostyn J. Final hearing of W's financial remedies claim, in which the main issue was whether H should be held to the terms of a separation agreement executed by the parties in