A pluralidade das entidades familiares e suas novas modalidades

Abstract

The formation of family groups has followed the history of mankind. However, each society has developed peculiarities as to family formation, its development through time consequently giving place to changes in that institution. Such changes have grown more prominent from the 20th century on, and today it is possible to see different ways of forming a family, according to the article 226 of the Brazilian constitution. But this article establishes only three possibilities of family formation: by marriage, by stable union and the one-parent family. Though, with the ‗constitutionalization‘ of the civil law and its submission to the principles listed in the 1988‘s Federal Constitution, one has the guarantee of legal protection to family formations which are not listed in that article mainly due to the promotion of equality among the different members of a family group. So, one has aimed at presenting an outlook of these different family groups based on the analysis of constitutional principles, Family Law and jurisprudence. It has become clear, therefore, that Brazilian law must search to give legal protection for the people involved in family groups which are different from the ones already mentioned by the law as a way of fulfilling its role of answering to the demands of society.