The article examines where the main European legal systems stand as regards the financial consequences of divorce, trying to draw conclusions on the direction and speed of developments from the experience of these systems. First, the questions of how matrimonial property rules operate in the event of divorce and how they interact with the financial remedies provided by the law on divorce are examined. Next, the focus is shifted to the issue of maintenance after divorce. Recent legal developments seem to indicate that a tendency to lessen the importance of maintenance and comparable claims is becoming even more pronounced.

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This paper examines the recent developments in underage abortion and related questions in Spanish law. Despite the prevalence of the language of autonomy, like in Britain, children's interests are not defined in Spain by relying exclusively on the competent child's views. Parental opinion and societal expectations are given due weight, although sometimes only implicitly. Calculated ambiguity in legal practice and in the relevant legal texts provides evidence of the pervasive influence of deeply rooted distrust as against clear-cut rules favouring a young person's autonomy.

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1The author is grateful to Marianne Holdgaard and Terje Stordalen for their support and to the participants at the Aalborg Second FamLaPP Annual Conference for their insightful comments and feedback on an earlier version of this article. The anonymous reviewer's guidance has also significantly improved it. Any mistakes remain my own. 2 Except for some limited exceptions, Catalonia is to be treated in family law as a jurisdiction in its own right. The Catalan Civil Code (hereafter CCCat) regulates substantive family legal issues in its second Book (enacted in 2010). The Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia hears appeals on family law as a last resort. Spanish and Catalan civil codes bear the same legal value in this paper's subject-matter. 3For instance, France (1970), the Netherlands (1995 or Germany (1998). See the overview provided by G. Kovačec Stanić, 'Personal relationship between the child and his/her grandparents in comparative family law', in: H. Fulchiron (ed.), Les solidarités entre générations -Solidarities between generations,