Iscflul.9.2.16

https://doi.org/10.22364/iscflul.9.2.16 | 183-195 | PDF

Janis Lazdins, Dr. iur., Professor
University of Latvia

The Right to Divorce – a Safeguard or a Restriction on the Spouses’ Freedom?

Key words: marriage, divorce, grounds for divorce

Summary
The article is dedicated to the analyses of the right to divorce provided by Law on Marriage of 1 February 1921 with the aim of finding the answer to the question of whether, after the dissolution of marriage, the law granted to the former spouses genuine freedom from each other. The basic principles of Law on Marriage are also identified in the article, assessment of case law and statistical materials is provided. The author concludes that divorce did not always give the former spouses genuine freedom, because the spouse who was not at fault in the divorce, in case of being needy, could claim maintenance from the spouse at fault. Such legal procedure did not have a major impact on the number of dissolved marriages. This is proven by the fact that, in the 1930s, Latvia, according to the number of divorces per 1000 marriages entered into, ranked second in Europe, immediately after the communist USSR.

The current paper has been published in the second collection of research papers in conjunction with the 9^th International Scientific Conference of the Faculty of Law of the University of Latvia “Revisiting the Limits of Freedom While Living Under Threat. II”, 9–10 November 2023. Riga: University of Latvia Press, 2024. 232 pages.