Section 307

a) In a proceeding for dissolution of marriage, or for legal separation, or in a proceeding for disposition of property following the decree of dissolution of marriage or legal separation by a court which lacked personal jurisdiction over the absent spouse or lacked jurisdiction to dispose of the property, the court shall without regard to marital misconduct, finally equitably divide and distribute and assign between the parties the property and estates belonging to either or both, however and whenever acquired, whether the title is in the name of husband or wife or both; in making such division and distribution the court shall consider the length of marriage, any prior marriage of a party, the age, health, station, occupation, amount and sources of income, vocational skills, employability, estate, liabilities and needs of each of the parties, whether the property award is in lieu of or in addition to maintenance, and the opportunity of each for future acquisition of capital assets and income; the court shall also consider the contribution and dissipation of each in the acquisition, preservation, deprecation or appreciation in value of the respective estates, as well as the contribution of a spouse as a homemaker. It shall be presumed that each spouse made a substantial contribution to the acquisition of income and property while they were living together as husband and wife.

d) The court may also impose a lien or charge upon the property or estate assigned to a party as security for the payment of any support or other award for the children or maintenance or other allowance or award for the other spouse, required to be paid by said party.

(Proposed Revised Uniform Marriage and Divorce Act submitted
by the American Bar Association. “Family Law Quarterly”,
Vol. VII, No 2 summer 1973. p. 148.).

1. What is the main idea of the act?

1. Give reasons why the first long sentence is not divided into several shorter ones.

2. Comment upon the use of or, its repetition.

3. Grammatically speaking, what types of sentences are used? (Negative, affirmative, passive, active, etc).

4. Why is shall used with the third person?

5. What parts of speech are dominant? Why?

6. How often do adjectives appear? What kind of adjectives are they?

7. What features of the language create the tone of objectivity and detachment?

8. Which words would you typify as strictly connected with the law?

9. Which words belong to legal English because of their formality and preciseness?

10. Explain the meaning of:

acquisition liability

allowance lien

decree property award

equitability substantial

jurisdiction thereto

XI. Rewrite the following selection in informal, everyday English:

In any such proceedings, the court may protect and promote the best interests of children by setting aside a portion of the jointly and separately held estates of the parties in a separate fund or trust for the support, maintenance, education and general welfare of any minor, dependant or incompetent children of the parties.