The right to alimony in Nicaragua: progress, criteria, and challenges of the Family Code

Abstract

This article presents a critical analysis of the application of Child Support Law in Nicaragua after eleven years of the Family Code's enforcement. Through a qualitative methodology with a legal dogmatic, normative, and jurisdictional approach—supported by the analysis of judicial rulings, automated system statistics, and specialized literature—the study examines the paradigmatic transformation of this right: from a historically welfare-based conception toward a model grounded in human rights, given that the Right to Support per se guarantees the Right to Life. Within this transition, the best interests of the child and the principle of parental co-responsibility are established as transversal axes of legal protection. Despite national and international dogmatic and normative progress, the research finds that, in judicial practice, the determination of support payments under a mixed system—based on general, percentage, and circumstantial criteria—presents a fragmented application subject to subjective assessments. This discrepancy in criteria weakens legal certainty and highlights the urgent need to strengthen the standardization of criteria and control mechanisms that guarantee compliance with the duty of support, as well as its enforcement, thereby ensuring the comprehensive protection of support creditors within a framework of social justice and human dignity.