One of Germany's richest women has won a landmark case to protect her wealth from her French ex-husband, paving the way for pre-nuptial contracts widely used in Europe and the US to be enforced in the English courts.

Lawyers said the judgment for Katrin Radmacher, a paper industry heiress worth an estimated £100m (€117m), would hearten Britons and English-based expatriates who had tried to safeguard their assets through deals agreed before marrying poorer spouses.