This chapter shall be liberally construed and applied to promote its underlying purposes, which are:

1. (1) To promote the amicable settlement of disputes that have arisen between parties to a marriage;
2. (2) To mitigate the potential harm to spouses and their children caused by the process of legal dissolution of marriage;
3. (3) To make the law of divorce more effective for dealing with the realities of matrimonial experience by making irretrievable breakdown of the marriage relationship the sole basis for divorce;
4. (4) To permit dissolution of a marriage where the marriage is irretrievably broken despite the objections of an unwilling spouse;
5. (5) To award alimony under this chapter to a dependent party but only during the continuance of such dependency;
6. (6) To award alimony in appropriate cases so as to encourage parties to become self-supporting;
7. (7) [Repealed.]

59 Del. Laws, c. 350, § 1; 61 Del. Laws, c. 204, § 1; 62 Del. Laws, c. 168, § 1