Il ripudio unilaterale islamico tra Corte di cassazione e Corte di giustizia dell’Unione europea: rilievi critici

The paper analyses judgment No. 16804/2020 delivered by the Court of Cassation (First Civil Session). This decree concerns the question of recognition of a divorce pronounced by a religious sharia court in a third country (Palestine) as a consequence of the repudiation of the wife by her husband. Being the position of the Italian Supreme Court quite different from the one of the Court of Justice of the European Union in the Soha Sahyouni case (C-372/16), the paper explores the possible consequences of the mentioned pronounce and in particular the role of Article 65 of Law No. 218 of 1995 in the Italian system of the recognition of foreign decisions and instruments in family law matters. Furthermore, the paper looks at the notion of public policy in its double nature, both substantial and procedural, and at the increasing importance of the mutual choice of the espouses to divorce in order to allow the recognition of a foreign decision of divorce in the Italian legal system, taking also into account the recent changes in European and national rules.