Child Maintenance after Divorce: Review on the practices in Malaysian Shariah Courts

This paper reviews the practices of the Shariah courts in Malaysia in determining child maintenance applications. It adopts the qualitative legal research methodology, where data was collected from international treaties, legislation, and child maintenance cases decided by the courts and analyzed descriptively and thematically. The study reveals the existence of non-standardization practices related to the assessment of the needs of the child and the father's ability due to the general provisions and the absence of guidelines for judges. This study highlights the need for establishing guidelines to ensure children can enjoy a better quality of life even after divorce.