INTRODUCTION

The family has suffered a myriad of transformations in its internal and external framework during the last couple of centuries, especially in the 20th century. The familial group is nowadays considered to be an ‘affective harbor’ and a stronghold where ‘soul nourishment’ is found.

Modifications arise at all times, turning family law into one of the most interesting branches of the law. The family itself is a sociological phenomenon in its essence and multifaceted in its revelations. Complexity is an inexorable paradigm of family relations.

There are those who say that in the last decades there has been a ‘rebellion of consuetude’. Studies on the demographic trends of Western societies demonstrate an increase in the intricacy of family life. Additionally, they suggest ambiguity and fluidity in the definition of family categories.

The family continues to be a matter of blood relations, but it is no longer confined thereto. It is also a matter of care and the heart. Jemolo stated that ‘the family cannot be reduced to a juridical construction because it reminds affections above all, it concerns more to the heart than to the reason’, and he adds that the family is ‘an island that the sea of the law can touch, but only touch’.

The whole scenario was very simple: marriage, biology and adoption used to define the class of people who might claim to exercise parenthood. By limiting and restricting people who could vindicate parental status, laws reached a certain degree of predictability, stability and certainty. In the sphere of filiation, law always used presumptions due to the intrinsic complexity of imputing paternity or maternity to people. Those presumptions were (and still are) also due to obstacles based on historical prejudices, originating from the primacy of the patriarchal and matrimonial family.

Currently, the family is plural, and one of the most important consequences of family plurality lies in the recognition of the most diverse groups. This results in a vast constellation of possible variables.

The family originating from blood relations deserves legal protection. But those affective relationships that reveal a genuine spiritual and living communion also deserve this same juridical care. Parenthood, rather than something genetic or instinctive, should be considered as a construction built up over time. These bonds and the intensity of these relationships depend on an active presence.