Abstract
Apart from legally arranging the relationship between spouses and their children, marriage and divorce are also—maybe even foremost—financial matters, entailing rights and obligations for the spouses as well as the household property. As the legal systems provide different solutions for arranging the financial consequences of a gender-based division of labour during the marriage, their interactions can have severe negative consequences for spouses, but also provide options for strategic behaviour. Financial matters are especially suited for so-called forum shopping. However, even though financial matters are at first sight ‘simply about money’, issues such as maintenance and alimony are infused with moral matters such as fairness. Instead of strategic action, exploiting the collision of legal systems to maximise financial gain, gendered moral discourses informed the position of the interviewees, while actual legal provisions played only a minor role in their stories.
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Notes
- 1.
It is standard procedure in the Netherlands that municipalities try to cover part of social security paid to divorced people by claiming maintenance from the former spouse.
- 2.
300 gulden is about 135 euro.
- 3.
This case is discussed in more detail in Sportel (2013).
- 4.
In a last case, it did not become clear from the interview whether a mahr had been part of the marriage contract.
- 5.
100,000 gulden is approximately 45,000 euro.
- 6.
About 500–1000 euro. However, out of 13 interviews on marriages concluded in Morocco, in five cases I did not get a clear answer on the mahr, either because the interviewee did not know or remember what had been in their contract or did not seem to understand the question. One Moroccan interviewee, although she reluctantly answered the question, remarked that it was a sensitive issue to ask questions about. This may be part of the explanation of such a high number of unclear answers, which did not happen with any other subject in this research.
- 7.
About 450 euro.
- 8.
- 9.
This quote is also used, and the case is discussed in more detail in Sportel (2013).
- 10.
As she married before 2004, this was not yet possible.
- 11.
Eva uses the term onder huwelijkse voorwaarden here meaning a prenuptial agreement with separated property. A wali, or marriage guardian, giving permission for the marriage, used to be obligatory when concluding a Moroccan marriage.
- 12.
This quote is also used in Sportel (2013).
- 13.
Van alimentatierechtelijke aard in Dutch.
- 14.
Art. 1:103 BW. Relinquishing claims to the marital property only works when debts are made by the other spouse; not when both spouses have signed for them. The spouse relinquishing all claims to the property can only keep her/his clothes and a bed.
- 15.
This was in the 1980s, when the LBIO was not yet active in claiming maintenance. I have not been able to find the reason why he had to pay for only two years. Since 1994, the obligation to pay maintenance is limited to a maximum of 12 years, before that there was no limitation in duration.
- 16.
This case is discussed in more detail in Sportel (2013).
- 17.
As it is the property at the moment of the divorce, including the debts the husband left behind, that needs to be divided, not the value after ten years of hard work by Rabia to repay all debts accompanied by a spectacular increase in the worth of houses. Moreover, the former husband could already have claimed the right to half of the property at the moment of divorce or ever since, forcing Rabia to sell the house if necessary, not just at the moment of selling the property.
- 18.
The daughter was from an earlier marriage in Morocco.
- 19.
I do not know how the court case ended, but based on PIL as well as Malika’s lawyer’s opinion, I expect the judge would have applied Dutch family law.
- 20.
Conversations with her ex-husband were quoted in English by the interviewee.
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Sportel, I. (2016). Financial Aspects of Divorce. In: Divorce in Transnational Families. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-34009-8_7
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