Principles of European Family Law Regarding Divorce and Maintenance Between Former Spouses

Katharina Boele-Woelki is Professor of Private International Law, Comparative Law and Family Law at Utrecht University, The Netherlands and Extraordinary Professor at the University of the Western Cape, South-Africa. Since 2001 she has been the chair of the Commission on European Family Law which was established upon her initiative. She is president of the Dutch Association of Family Law, member of the board of the Dutch Association of Comparative Law, and member of several editorial boards of Dutch and European and South-African law journals. She is also a member of various associations, such as the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Völkerrecht as well as the Wissenschaftliche Vereinigung für Familienrecht. Since 2003 she has been one of the editors of the European Family Law Series. In 2007 she established the Utrecht Centre for European Research into Family Law (UCERF). She is a titular member of the International Academy of Comparative Law. She has organized prestigious international conferences, delivered numerous guest lectures at various universities around the world and has acted as a reporter, speaker, expert and panel member in many international conferences. In 2011 she has been awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Uppsala. In 2012 she has received the Anneliese Maier Forschungspreis of the Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung (Germany) for her work in the field of international and European family law. In 2013 she has been elected member of the International Advisory Board of the Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung. In 2014 she had been elected President of the International Academy of Comparative Law. Since 2015 she is taking on a new position as president of the Bucerius Law School.

Walter Pintens studied law at the Universities of Leuven, Tübingen and Munich. In 1982 he became doctor in law with a thesis on divorce by consent. He was Professor Ordinarius at the University of Leuven (Belgium) where he taught family and succession law and comparative law and Honorary Professor at the Universität des Saarlandes in Saarbrücken (Germany) where he taught comparative law. From 1992 until 1996 he was president of the department of private law at the University of Leuven. Prof. Pintens was a visiting professor at the University of Freiburg (1995), at the Humboldt University of Berlin (1996 and 2001) and at the University of South Africa in Pretoria (2007). He has written several books and articles in the fields of family law, succession law, comparative law and private international law. He was editor of the volume “Family and Succession Law in the International Encyclopaedia of Laws”. He is a member of the editorial board of the “Rechtskundig Weekblad”, corresponding editor of the “Zeitschrift für Europäisches Privatrecht” and co-editor and chairman of the International Advisory Council of the “Zeitschrift für das gesamte Familienrecht”. In 1987 Prof. Pintens was appointed as deputy justice of the peace in Leuven. From 1992 until 2000 he was a member of the Board for the Recruting of Judges, elected by the Belgian Parliament and in 2009 he was appointed a member of the Scientific Committee of the Institute for Judicial Training. 

Frédérique Ferrand (LL.M, 1980; DU in German Law, 1980; DEA in Private Law, 1982; DEA in International and European studies, 1984) is Professor Private Law at the Jean Moulin University Law School (since 1991). She is member of the University Institute of France, Director of the international, European and comparative law team, Director of the Édouard Lambert Institute of Comparative Law and Director of the IDEA Institute (Institut de droit et d’économie des affaires) in Lyon. In 1990 she obtained a doctoral degree at the Jean Moulin University Law School with the dissertation “Cassation française et Révision allemande”. She was research assistant at the Faculty of Law at the University of Augsburg (1981-1983) and assistant at the Faculty of Law at the Jean Moulin University Law School (1990-1991). She was junior member of the IUF (1999-2004), is senior member of the IUF (since 2010) and honorary Professor at the University of Augsburg (since 2002).

Cristina Gozàlez Beilfuss has a law degree at the University of Barcelona (1989) and a PhD in law at the same university (1994). Since 1990 she is Professor at the University of Barcelona. She was visiting Professor at the universities of Würzburg (Germany), Nijmega (Netherlands) and Recife (Brazil) as well as at the Academy of European Law (ERA); member of the Organising Committee of the Commission on European Family law; member of the Board Directors of the Spanish Association of professors of law international and international relations; and President of the Associació de estudis internacionals jurídics.

Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Maarit Jänterä-Jareborg; LL.D. Uppsala University; Honorary doctorates from the universities of Oslo, Helsinki and Bergen; Member of the Curatorium of the Hague Academy of International Law; Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities; President of the Swedish Foundation on Humanities and Social Sciences (RJ); Member of the Organising Committee of the Commission on European Family Law; Legal consultant at the Swedish Government Offices; Söderberg Laureate in Jurisprudence 2013; Rudbeck’s Gold Medal 2011; Thuréus Laureate in Social Sciences 2010; Idman’s award 1997. 

Nigel Lowe is Emeritus Professor ( LLB (Sheffield), LLD (Cardiff)). He is Barrister of the Inner Temple. Until his retirement in 2014, he was a Professor of Law at Cardiff Law School since 1991 and Head of School from 2010-2013. He is a expert on Family Law and a specialist in (International) Child Law. He is a consultant to the Permanent Bureau of the Hague Conference on Private International Law and the Council of Europe. He is a member of the UK's International Family Law Committee and of the Executive Committee of the International Society of Family Law; member of the Organising Committee of the Commission on European Family Law; and an advisory board member of the US based International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children. He is a Dartington Research Fellow and was a former Chairman of the Legal Group of the British Agencies for Adoption and Fostering.

Dieter Martiny is emeritus Professor at Europa-Universität Viadrina in Frankfurt/Oder. Dieter Martiny studied law in Heidelberg, Freiburg, Hamburg and Munich from 1963 to 1968. He passed the first and the second State Exam in Munich. After his PhD (1975) and habilitation (1995) at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich, he was a senior research fellow at the Max Planck Institute for foreign and international private law in Hamburg from 1974-1996. Besides that, he was a professor in Hamburg and Osnabrück. Since 2009, he is a guest professor at the Max Planck Institute for foreign and international private law in Hamburg.