14. Subjects of family law

Family law does not provide a precise definition of the concept of “family”. Legal norms define a family as a certain circle of citizens who are bound together by a certain set of rules and responsibilities.

Rights and obligations arise from the following provisions:

Presence of marriage ties.
Consanguinity (parents and children; grandparents and grandchildren).
Adoption of a child.

Currently, in order to legitimize the relationship between two people, it is necessary to collect a standard package of documents, which is a mandatory factor for creating a new unit of society.

Filing an application for marriage has several stages and a certain procedure:

Consent of both citizens entering into marriage.
Decide on the date and time of the marriage.
Collect a standard package of documents, which is announced in any branch of the Registration Authority.
Write an application to the selected department, which will subsequently register the relationship.
Pay the cost of the state deduction.

In order to enter into a marriage, certain conditions must be met:

The main condition for legitimizing the relationship between citizens is reaching the marriage period . In the Russian Federation, the age that allows you to make your own decision is reaching the age of majority, namely 18 years.
A reduction in the marriageable age is possible if a girl is pregnant or a child is born . In this case, the threshold is reduced to 16 years. To do this, you need to issue a certificate from the antenatal clinic, which confirms the period.
Calling a young man to a military position . In this case, at the request of the groom or parent, the threshold for entering into a marriage relationship may be lowered.

However, only the local government has the right to lower the marriage age threshold. It is to this department that a young couple or parents should contact if a problem arises.

The absence of these services should also be discussed if citizens who want to consolidate their relationship with stamps want to limit themselves to painting.

Types of family legal relations

The main classification of family relationships in a legal context is the following list:

1. Relationships between husband and wife (marital relations).

Before writing an application, it is worth deciding on the future surname that the spouses will bear. After the marriage is registered, the surname will change or remain the same.

After all the nuances have been decided and the date and time of the wedding have been chosen, it is worth collecting a standard package of documents:

Certificate of identification of citizens entering into a marriage union (both men and women). Before writing an application, it is necessary to check the validity of the documents. If the validity period is over, the marriage cannot be registered.
A document confirming the end of a previous marital relationship (if there are previous marital relationships).
A document confirming the death of a citizen who was a spouse (if this certificate is available).
If one of the citizens has not reached the age of majority, it is necessary to draw up a document that allows legalizing the marriage relationship.
Receipt confirming payment of the state payment. In this case, a check is issued for each citizen who wants to legalize the relationship.

Currently, the Civil Registry Department fills out application forms electronically.

Family law of the Russian Federation identifies the following restrictions that prevent the legalization of relationships between citizens:

A citizen who, at the time of filing the application, is in another marital relationship.
Marriage is not registered between citizens who have the status of close relatives (for example, between a parent and a child), full or half-kin (for example, a brother and sister with one common parent).
Marriage ties are not legitimized between the adoptive parent and the adopted child.
The union is not valid if at least one of the citizens has the status of an incapacitated person due to a disease that is of a mental nature.

Important! These provisions limit the possibility of legitimizing relationships between a man and a woman.

2. Relationships between citizens whose marriage is dissolved.

The procedure for dissolution of marriage is carried out in the following circumstances:

Mutual desire of citizens to end the marriage relationship.
Citizens do not claim to share common movable and immovable property.
Citizens do not have a common minor child.

In order to terminate a marriage relationship, spouses are required to write applications, pay a state payment of 200 rubles and provide a package of documents (passports and marriage registration certificate).

It is worth noting! Termination of marital relations in the Civil Registry Department is much easier and faster.

3. Parental relationships.

This type of legal relationship regulates the rights and obligations of the following persons:

Parents and children.
Adoptive parent and adopted child.

4. The relationship between a guardian (or trustee) and a ward child who has not reached the age of majority.

5. The relationship between the adoptive parent and the adopted child.

6. The relationship between the adoptive parent and the Guardianship Authority , which exercises control over the fulfillment of the duties of a citizen.

Subjects and objects of family legal relations

Family relationships in a legal context have elements, which are object, subject and content.

The following components are considered to be the objects of family relationships:

1. Specific action:

Positive action (for example, changing a surname when registering a marriage, paying cash benefits in the form of alimony to one of the parents).
An action that takes the form of abstinence (for example, keeping a secret about the adoption of a child).

2. Movable and immovable possession.

The subjects of family legal relations are citizens who are endowed with subjective rights and responsibilities.

A family legal relationship arises between citizens who are the legal holder in a certain unit of society:

Husband and wife (marriage relationship).
Parent and child (parental relationship).
Brother and sister (consanguinity observed).
Grandfather and grandson.
Adoptive parent and adopted child.
A guardian (trustee) and a child who has not reached the age of majority.

It is worth noting! Cohabitation of subjects of a family relationship does not affect the rights and obligations of each member who is a participant.

14. Subjects of family law

The subjects of family legal relations are the persons participating in them. Such persons are only citizens, and other subjects of law (legal entities, state and municipal bodies, as well as other social entities) do not directly participate in family legal relations. Thus, it is necessary to distinguish between family legal relations themselves and legal relations regulated by the norms of family law. The subjects of legal relations should be understood as those participants who, in accordance with the rules of law, can act as bearers of subjective legal rights and obligations. In any legal relationship there must be at least two of its subjects, since an individual cannot be in any social relationship with himself. Neither the RF IC nor any other normative act contains an exhaustive list of persons who could be classified as subjects of family and marital relations. The most common ones include: spouses, including former ones, parents, adoptive parents, children, siblings, grandparents, grandchildren, pupils and actual educators, stepsons and stepdaughters, stepfathers and stepmothers, guardians and trustees, adoptive parents and adopted children. To their number we can also add guardianship and trusteeship authorities and the court. So, in particular, when spouses divorce, in cases where a dispute arises about children, the solution to this problem is entrusted to the court, which has certain rights and, realizing them, intervenes in the course of existing legal relations, giving them a new direction in their development. A specific feature of the subjects of family legal relations is that, entering into relationships with each other, they act in a certain capacity. Moreover, their qualitative characteristics are determined by some stability, which makes it possible to individualize the participant in the relationship (mother, father, spouse, etc.). Subjects of family legal relations are endowed by law with family legal capacity and family legal capacity. According to Art. 17 of the RF PS in general, legal capacity can be defined as the ability of a citizen to have civil rights and bear responsibilities. In turn, legal capacity is the ability of a citizen, through his actions, to acquire and exercise civil rights, to create civil responsibilities for himself and to fulfill them (Clause 1 of Article 21 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation). A citizen has family legal capacity from the moment of birth. However, its real implementation is possible upon reaching a certain age and in the presence of appropriate circumstances. Thus, the ability to marry, as a general rule, appears as part of family legal capacity from the moment of reaching marriageable age (i.e., adulthood). With the age of majority, the ability to become an adoptive parent, guardian, trustee, or foster parent appears. The Code allows in a number of cases the restriction of family legal capacity. For example, persons recognized by a court as incompetent or partially capable, as well as persons deprived of parental rights by a court or limited in parental rights by a court, cannot be adoptive parents, guardians, trustees of minor children (Articles 127, 146, 153 of the Family Code). Thus, we can say that in relation to general legal capacity, whose content is revealed through the prism of Art. 17 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, family legal capacity acts as a special one. Family capacity is the ability of a person, through his own conscious actions, to acquire for himself family rights and obligations and to fulfill them, as well as the ability to bear responsibility in the event of their failure to fulfill them.

Contents of family legal capacity

The content of a family legal relationship is the subjective right and obligation that participants in a certain unit of society have.

Family legal relations include the following list:

The legal capacity of a citizen who is a member of a certain unit of society. This type of legal relationship determines a citizen’s choice of personal property and non-property rights for which he is responsible.
The legal capacity of a citizen who is a member of a certain unit of society. This type of legal relationship ensures the citizen’s rights to acquire and exercise family rights and obligations, as well as their execution.

Partial family capacity

This type of legal capacity occurs before the age of majority in the following situations, which are provided for by law:

In the process of adoption (from 10 years old).
In the process of restoring parental rights and responsibilities (from 10 years of age).
A minor parent has the right to establish paternity in court proceedings (from the age of 14).

Family legal relations are considered by family law and are regulated at the legislative level.

Outskirts

The family acts as an independent subject of law. Family is primarily a social phenomenon. In a sociological sense, a family is a small social group of people united by blood and other equivalent ties, as well as mutual rights and responsibilities.

Current legislation does not contain a legal definition of family, but if we analyze family law, we can draw the following conclusion: a family is an association, as a rule, of persons living together, bound by mutual rights and obligations arising from marriage, kinship, adoption or other form of arrangement of children to be raised in a family.

Along with the term “family”, the term “family member” is used in family law. There is also no legal definition of this concept. An analysis of the current family legislation allows us to conclude that the term “family member” is used in relation to persons bound by family rights and responsibilities. These may be persons living in the same family, members of different families (brothers and sisters), former family members (divorced spouses).

The family performs the following main functions:

reproductive (procreation);
educational;
economic and economic;
recreational (mutual moral and material support);
communicative (communication).

Thus, a family is a system of social, biological, economic, moral and other social relations that arise in connection with a special type of activity: giving birth and raising children, running a common household. Sociologists say that a family is a small social group with historically defined organizations, whose members are connected by marriage (kinship) relationships, a common life and mutual moral responsibility, the social necessity of which is determined by the need of society for the physical and spiritual reproduction of the population.

The social functions of the family are:

demographic – childbearing, life preservation;
economic – creating and maintaining a certain level of material resources that guarantees the needs of family members;
cultural and informational – personality formation, socialization of children.

The subjects of family legal relations are citizens (family members). Their family legal personality is revealed through legal capacity and capacity.

Family legal capacity refers to the ability of a person to have family rights and responsibilities. It arises in a person from the moment of birth, but its scope changes with the age of the subject of the family legal relationship (for example, the right to marry, adopt a child and a number of others appear upon reaching adulthood, i.e. at 18 years of age).

Family capacity is understood as the ability of a person, through his actions, to acquire and exercise family rights and obligations. At the same time, legal capacity is not a necessary prerequisite for the emergence of family legal relations. The emergence of a number of legal relations occurs regardless of the will of the person. Such, for example, are the legal relations between parents and young (under 14 years old) children.

Family law does not indicate the age at which full family legal capacity arises, since it does not always matter for the emergence of a family legal relationship. Most often, this age coincides with the moment when legal capacity arises (for example, the opportunity to get married arises simultaneously with a citizen reaching marriageable age). The emergence of full legal capacity in the field of civil law should not always automatically lead to the recognition of full family capacity. Article 27 of the Civil Code (CC) provides for the possibility of emancipation of a minor who has reached the age of 16, in which case he becomes fully capable. However, the scope of family capacity depends to a certain extent on the scope of civil capacity. Thus, when a court deprives a citizen of civil capacity due to a mental disorder, he also loses family capacity: he does not have the right to marry, be an adoptive parent, guardian (trustee), or adoptive parent.

Thus, family legal relations (rights and obligations) arise between the following subjects (family members): spouses, parents and children, brothers and sisters (full and half-blooded), grandfather (grandmother) and grandchildren (granddaughters), as well as between persons who adopted for the upbringing of children (by adoptive parents, guardians (trustees), foster parents, actual educators), and children adopted into their family.

The corresponding rights and obligations arise in the presence of circumstances (legal facts) established in the Family Code, and, as a rule, do not depend on the cohabitation of family members or the dependence of one family member on another (unlike other branches of law - housing, law social security, etc.).