The purpose of this paper is to provide a comparative analysis of Spain and England and their respective approaches to the emerging trend of shared custody. To begin with, this paper will seek to show that the movement towards shared custody arrangements in Spain has been a slow process despite the existence of a legal power to make shared custody orders. However, this paper will further seek to demonstrate that legislative and judicial changes currently taking place in this field in Spain show that there is a marked movement towards a greater acceptance of shared custody arrangements and to a limited extent the preferential treatment of this custody model in Spain Having considered the Spanish position, this paper will then concentrate on the English position. The English approach to shared custody provides an interesting comparison to that of Spain, as despite both countries having started with the same scepticism towards shared custody, the English courts have quickly overcome this, resulting in England now having perhaps the most developed jurisprudence in relation to this subject among European jurisdictions.
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