Negative Continuity in Family Law: A Few Touches to an Expressionist Portrait

Abstract

The article is devoted to the analysis of the legislation of the 30s and 40s regarding marriage and the family - the rejection of legal recognition and the identification of the actual protection of marriage, the establishment of a very strict and consistent divorce procedure, the appeal to the truncated status of children born out of wedlock. Its review and evaluation is offered. Emphasis and statements are made on those normative-legal components of the legislation, which, either in full or in a significantly truncated version, are adopted, within the framework of continuity, by subsequent legislative decisions. In particular, we are talking about the continuing, despite legislative initiatives, denial of the need for at least partial protection of the interests of actual spouses (especially those with common children), about “rudimentary echoes” in modern norms on the judicial establishment of paternity of negative (regressive) decisions of the 40s , as well as a specific public component of the divorce process, which obliges the court to decide on issues not declared by the parties. It is emphasized that the effectiveness of strict legislation in the field of marriage and family is apparent and socially harmful, does not correspond to the nature and essence of family relations.