5. The wife is entitled to be maintained by her husband during the iddah on the same scale as before the divorce, conditionally on submitting to her husband’s control as regards her place of residence and general behaviour. But on completion of her iddah she ceases to have any claim for maintenance.
CHAPTER XXV.
The United States of America.
The United States as such, that is, in its Federal capacity, has no single system of marriage and divorce laws applicable to all the States and Territories.
The purpose of the Constitution of the United States is to maintain by its federal structure a strong national government, while recognizing each of the States which make up the federation to be so far as is consistent with the motive of the Union, sovereign commonwealth.
When one considers this wonderful federation of States and Territories, with nearly half a hundred separate governments each making and interpreting its domestic laws, and yet all parts of, and working in harmony with, the central or Federal Government, the justice of Gladstone’s tribute to the American Constitution as “the most wonderful work ever struck off at a given time by the brain and purpose of man” is apparent.
The laws of marriage and divorce in the various States and Territories cannot therefore be ascertained from a single legislative or judicial source. The law of the several jurisdictions consists not only of legislative enactments, but of judicial construction and interpretation of such legislation.
Fortunately the tendency is toward uniformity of legislation among the States, especially on the important subject of marriage and divorce, and such differences as exist are pointed out substantially in this chapter when each State or Territory is considered separately.