INTRODUCTION

The CEFL's Principles of European Family Law Regarding Maintenance Between Former Spouses were the second to be drafted and were published together with those regarding divorce in 2004. The Maintenance Principles comprise ten Principles (Principles 2:1–2:10). In drafting those Principles, account was taken of the position in 22 European jurisdictions, based on national reports on the law as it stood at the end of 2002.

In summary, the aim of the Maintenance Principles is to provide a common set of principles covering spousal support after divorce, regardless of whether the divorce is consensual or not. The basic underlying strategy is to limit post-divorce maintenance claims to where the creditor spouse has insufficient resources to meet his or her needs and the debtor spouse has the ability to satisfy those needs. For the most part, post-divorce spousal maintenance is envisaged to be short-term. Allowance is also made for the spouses to make their own maintenance agreement.

The updated reports cover later legal developments until 2020. Unfortunately, no update reports were received from two of the original 22 jurisdictions surveyed (czechia and switzerland). On the other hand, an update report was received from estonia, which was not one of the original jurisdictions surveyed, and that jurisdiction has been included in the following analysis.