Budoucí občanský zákoník a rodinné právo

The Civil Code is now, as a result of the Government Resolution, currently in preparation as the forth in sequence in the territory of this country. It shall again include Family Law. The author of the contribution first deals with the issues related to the system of organization of the new Code with special attention paid to Family Law including its position and order assumed in the Code. The author gives arguments in support of placing the whole chapter of Family Law as the first one following the initial (the so called general) part, whose placing she considers to be justified. The following part of the contribution is devoted to the selected concepts of Family Law, i.e. those which can be considered as most significant from the point of view of affecting the law now in force. (1) Henceforward only the civil form of marriage is to be permitted (or shall be relevant in respect of the status of the parties). For this purpose, it appears necessary to newly regulate the celebration of marriage, i.e. especially to determine properly and in compliance with Constitution, the authority which shall be the subject-matter and local authority to receive the declarations by the bride and bridegroom while the appointment of the solemnizing officer, which is now almost the crucial point of the regulation, shall be substantially suppressed. The new regulation purports to strengthen legal certainty in the matters of status. (2) The current regulation deals with the issues of adverse consequences of defects in the declarations by the bride and bridegroom as well as in the process of solemnization in a way that is unparalleled in the world. The new regulation should, therefore, come back to the continental legal standards and it should do so in not only determining which defect should be sanctioned, but also in the legal formulation of the adverse impact of the defects on the marital status. (3) Another purpose (primary one as to its importance) of the new Family Law is enhancing the minors’ protection, especially in the light of international covenants of our country. This fundamental trend should come to be reflected in the approach to both adoption and other forms of substitutional care. Therefore all these concepts will be (in their contents, too) re-defined to approach the European standards: the stress placed upon the actual child care and not the acceleration of the creation of the new legal status), improving the approach to the relationship between the biological parent and the child (it is the biological family that should be the first to be assisted and only then other options may be elected), suppressing the anonymity of adoption, the currently supreme position of the candidate for adoption, the exclusive decision-making power of the court, proper proceeding without haste. In the individual child care, the concept of placing a child in a person’s care should always have the priority, and only then, subject to circumstances, the authorities could proceed either towards adoption or foster care.