{"data":{"id":"us-de/13-del.-c.-1502","jurisdiction":"us-de","citation":"13 Del. C. § 1502","heading":"Purpose; construction.","body":"This chapter shall be liberally construed and applied to promote its underlying purposes, which are:\n(1) To promote the amicable settlement of disputes that have arisen between parties to a marriage;\n(2) To mitigate the potential harm to spouses and their children caused by the process of legal dissolution of marriage;\n(3) To make the law of divorce more effective for dealing with the realities of matrimonial experience by making irretrievable breakdown of the marriage relationship the sole basis for divorce;\n(4) To permit dissolution of a marriage where the marriage is irretrievably broken despite the objections of an unwilling spouse;\n(5) To award alimony under this chapter to a dependent party but only during the continuance of such dependency;\n(6) To award alimony in appropriate cases so as to encourage parties to become self-supporting;\n(7) [Repealed.]","path":["Title 13. Domestic Relations","CHAPTER 15. Divorce and Annulment"],"source_url":"https://delcode.delaware.gov/title13/c015/index.html#1502","current_through":"2026-08-10 (85 Del. Laws, c. 421, 424)","vintage":"","retrieved_at":"2026-09-05T23:02:17Z","sha256":"0580b962fb909299bfe8a66365245b5dcf6b1beb4bc735024cdb70b37e3e5de5","source_id":"us-de","stale":true,"prev":"us-de/13-del.-c.-1501","next":"us-de/13-del.-c.-1503"},"notice":"GroundRules: Original legal text. Not legal advice."}