Social and Legal Studios

The family, as the primary and essential focus of society, falls into the scope of special protection of the state. One of the manifestations of such protection is the creation of the maximum permissible system of guarantees for preserving the integrity of the family, in particular by the legal regulation of those institutions by the state, which are aimed at assisting spouses in preserving their marriage. In particular, one of the abovementioned is the institute of spousal separate residence, which is more commonly known in the world as separation. The purpose of the article is to analyze the legal provisions of the separation institute in those EU member-states that have chosen for themselves a model of legal regulation of the separation institute. Under the model the regime of separate residence of spouses (separation) exists simultaneously with the institute of divorce, and the spouse has a choice of these two institutes to give preference, according to the specific case, in particular the Benelux countries, Portugal and France. In order to solve these tasks, the general research methods (dialectic, complex, structural-functional, formal-logical, system analysis) and special legal research methods (comparative-legal and the method of interpretation of legal norms) have been applied. An analysis of the legal provisions, which regulate separation institute in the Kingdom of Belgium, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the Republic of Portugal and Republic of France, has revealed the following five key features that characterize the model of legal regulation of separation institute in these states: 1) the grounds for establishing separation and divorce are the same; 2) the requirement for the establishment of separate residence regime shall be considered in the same manner as the requirement for divorce; 3) the requirement for dissolution of marriage takes priority over the requirement for establishing a regime of separate residence: if both are submitted to the judge at the same time, the judge first examines the request for dissolution of the marriage and satisfies it, in case such satisfaction is possible; otherwise, the judge considers the request establishing a regime of separate residence; 4) the spouse who has filed a lawsuit for dissolution of marriage may at any stage of the case replace it with a lawsuit for the establishment of a separate residence regime; 5) the separation of spouses ceases to be a cohabitation and retention obligation after the regime has been established, but the obligation of mutual assistance and marital fidelity remains