Legal Obligation of Maintenance Between Spouses and Former Spouses in the Romanian Law

ABSTRACT: The legal maintenance obligation is the duty imposed under the law to a person to ensure to the other person the required subsistence means, both in material and spiritual terms. This paper comprises a theoretical and practical review of the maintenance obligation between the spouses and former spouses, following the dissolution of marriage. As it shall follow from our research, the maintenance obligation may materialize at all times during the marriage, including during the divorce trial, of course, subject to the observance of two conditions: the state of need of the maintenance creditor spouse and the material means of the maintenance debtor spouse. At the same time, at the end of the research, we shall find that the divorced spouse is entitled to maintenance if three conditions are met, i.e.: that they are in need, the need must be the consequence of the incapacity for work and that the incapacity occurred within one year as of the dissolution of marriage.

KEYWORDS: legal maintenance obligation, spouses, former spouses, state of need, material means