Are there limits to new family standards according to the principle of plurality?

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate the types of family currently recognized in the Brazilian legal system. In order to do so, we follow the evolution of the concept of family in the history of the Brazilian Law. In bigger or smaller degree, it is our conclusion, the Law imposes minimum limits to the definition of what could be called a family. During all of the development of this concept a minimum limit, an option taken by the legislators, it was always observed: the monogamy. Along with recent revisions of the concept in order to include families with couples of the same sex, the Law simply creates an open concept of family that is still founded by the monogamic family model. In the simultaneous families’ phenomenon, for instance, the Law protects the consensual husband or wife in ignorance and its offspring, but it can not give its protection to the relationship itself. The same restrictions are followed in common-law marriages. This is due to the extreme civil and penal sanctions attributed by the Brazilian Law to bigamy.