INTERNATIONAL MAINTENANCE OBLIGATIONS ORDER

INTERNATIONAL MAINTENANCE OBLIGATIONS

SUBSIDIARY LEGISLATION 460.25

INTERNATIONAL MAINTENANCE OBLIGATIONS

ORDER

11th November, 2011

LEGAL NOTICE 452 of 2011.

The title of this Order is the International Maintenance

Obligations Order.

This Order implements the relevant provisions of Council

Regulation (EC) No 4/2009 of 18 December 2008 on jurisdiction,

applicable law, recognition and enforcement of decisions and

cooperation in matters relating to maintenance obligations.

In this order, unless the context otherwise requires -

''the EC Regulation" means Council Regulation (EC) No 4/2009 of

18 December 2008 on jurisdiction, applicable law, recognition and

enforcement of decisions and cooperation in matters relating to

maintenance obligations;

"the Minister" means the Minister responsible for justice.

The functions under the EC Regulation shall be discharged

by the Director responsible for welfare as the central authority and

shall receive and transmit an application for a declaration of

enforceability under Article 27 of the EC Regulation.

(1) The Civil Court (Family Section)

shall

have

jurisdiction of enforcement to determine -

(a) the question of refusal or suspension of enforcement

under Article 21 of the EC Regulation; and

(b) an application for a declaration of enforceability under

Article 27 of the EC Regulation.

(2) Where the Civil Court (Family Section) has determined by

way of recognising a decision or declaring a decision as

enforceable, such decision –

(a) shall be of the same force and effect as if it had

originally been made by the Civil Court (Family

Section); and

(b) may be enforced in the same way as if the decision had

been originally made by the Civil Court (Family

Section).

(3) For the purpose of this article, "decision" has the same

meaning as that given to the term in paragraph 1 in Article 2.1 of

the EC Regulation.

(1) A defendant who fulfils the criteria laid down by

Article 19.1 of the EC Regulation may apply by means of an

application to the Civil Court (Family Section) for a review within

the time limit set out by Article 19.2 of the EC Regulation.

INTERNATIONAL MAINTENANCE OBLIGATIONS

(2) The Civil Court (Family Section) shall dispose of an

application for a review in accordance with Article 19 of the EC

Regulation.

(1) Pursuant to Article 32 of the EC Regulation, an appeal

shall lie to the Court of Appeal against the decision made by the

Civil Court (Family Section) under article 5.

(2) An appeal against the declaration of enforceability shall be

lodged within thirty days of service of such declaration

Provided that if the party against whom enforcement is

sought has his habitual residence in a Member State other than that

in which the declaration of enforceability was given, the time for

appealing shall be forty-five days and shall run from the date of

service of the decision.

(1) Where any document or a decision referred to in

Articles 20, 28 and 40 of the EC Regulation has been made in any

language other than Maltese, a translation into English of that

document or decision shall be submitted in accordance with the

said Articles.

(2) For the purposes of Article 59 of the EC Regulation, the

accepted language for the Central Authority shall be Maltese or

English.