Need to Clarify the Legal Definition of Alimony

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Abstract

The study addresses the absence of an adequate legal definition of alimony in modern Russian family law. Article 80 of the Family Code provides an unsatisfactory definition due to its imprecision and contradiction with Articles 89, 93-97. Existing doctrinal definitions similarly fail to capture the concept’s essential attributes. The research clarifies the scope of alimony legal relations, including entitled persons, payment grounds, methods, and forms. Drawing on the Family Code and related civil, notarial, labor, tax, administrative, and criminal law norms, the study employs formal-logical, systemic, comparative-legal, empirical, and synthetic methods. An updated list of subjects of alimony legal relations has been synthesized. Definitions proposed in legal literature by various authors that inaccurately reflect essential aspects of alimony, are analyzed: they fail to cover the full range of attributive features and persons entering alimony legal relations. The study proves the unreasonableness of including minor age, disability, and neediness in the alimony definition, as these are concomitant but not always necessary conditions for alimony legal relations. The study notes that notarial agreements for non-monetary alimony require preliminary cost equivalence assessment. The result is the author’s definition of alimony. The work concludes with proposals to modernize the Family Code of the Russian Federation.

About the authors

Andrey I. Ivenskiy

Samara Law Institute of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia

Author for correspondence.
Email: andrey.ivenskiy@yandex.ru
ORCID iD: 0000-0002-9805-540X
SPIN-code: 2998-5839

Candidate of Law, Associate Professor, Department of Criminal Law Disciplines

24 Rylskaya str., Samara, Russian Federation, 443022

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