European plans to harmonise the laws governing family-related property disputes could drag UK laws back decades, the chairman of the Family Law Bar Association warned last week.

Briefing reporters before the association's conference in London, Andrew Macfarlane QC said it had concerns about European Commission plans for a Green Paper mooting harmonisation of the rules of applicable law and parts of the substantive law governing property disputes, as they fail to offer proper protection to all parties.

For example, in some European Union countries, he said that if all the assets are in the name of the husband, the wife gets nothing.

'Our approach is a very flexible and sophisticated system designed to meet the needs of the parties and produce a just and fair resolution of property disputes,' he said.

'If it is going to change radically, a lot of thought is going to have to be put into whether that is a better system.'

However, Charlotte Bradley, chairwoman of the Solicitors Family Law Association's (SFLA) international committee, warned against panicking.

'The European Commission wants to see greater moves towards harmonisation of European family law systems, but actual harmonisation is some way off,' she said.

'This would be an incredibly complex task given the huge variation in domestic laws throughout the EU.

The SFLA will be keeping a close eye on developments.'

Paula Rohan