ABSTRACT
The family as the basic social unit creates a concept that involves the interest on different levels. Its specific meaning and significance therefore may be traced in various disciplines. The man’s unification into the family reflects the utmost natural call to belonging. Emotions that rise between family members are caused primarily by love that shows itself in various forms, intensity and sense. The social attitude towards family is a mirror of social values being acceptable and sought for. Nowadays the family, particularly perceived through wedlock as a ground for its creation, is suffering from attacks and criticism that deprive it of its classical and traditional meaning. Tendencies that arise to destroy the family by enlarging it with new types of family, nevertheless cannot deny the family’s basic signification and very existence. The motive comes from the man’s nature, which is longing for love. The love as a boundless giving, on the level of woman’s and man’s emotions, is the utmost determinant of the family. The legal system, seen as a rational model of behaviour, expects a kind of conduct from all participants that share one or more social relations. National legal systems differentiate towards the regulation of family, but they share numerous elements as well. The expansion of the law and legal regulation is unavoidable, but the very first beginnings of European legal development are bound with Judeo-Christian learning. This means that love, as a key attribute, forms a base for family. A development of legal systems has transformed love as a superior emotion between a man and a woman into various expressions, the most common of which are support, fidelity and respect.
