Law-enforcement problems of implementing the provisions of the Decree of 8 July 1944 on the recovery of maintenance for minor children

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to identify the most important law-enforcement problems in implementing the provisions of the Decree of 8 July 1944 on the recovery of maintenance for minor children. The relevance of the study is due to the cyclicality of historical events, alternately causing either a tightening or a liberalization of the legal regulation of family relations. The article analyzes the judicial practice of the 1940s related to the recovery of maintenance for illegitimate children. The author of the article draws attention to the legislative-technical and contentual disadvantages of the Decree of 8 July 1944, which were discriminatory in relation to illegitimate children and their mothers. These disadvantages motivated courts to replace the legislator for the sake of these persons. In the process of law-enforcement practice of the post-war period, the Supreme Court of the USSR created in fact a new rule on the mother’s right to receive maintenance for children born out of wedlock after the issuance of the Decree of 8 July 1944, thereby exceeding its powers, although it was guided by noble motives.