Family Legal Acts as a Kind of Legal Facts

Abstract

Within the framework of the classifiation of legal facts on the basis of their relationship to the human will, family legal acts are distinguished in science as an independent group. The purpose of the study is to analyze family legal acts. Based on the works of O. A. Krasavchikov devoted to the study of legal facts, the characteristic features of family legal acts are revealed. A family legal act can be characterized as an action aimed at causing specifi family law consequences. The subjects of family legal acts can only be individuals who have respective family capacity. The characteristic features of a family legal act should also include its legality. In some cases (such as voluntary establishment of paternity), the will of one person is the key element for the occurrence of legal consequences, while for other cases, an expression of will of two persons is required, and these expressions of will are equally important in the legal relationship. Thus, upon marriage, it is required that a man and a woman take actions (family legal acts) aimed at establishing the rights and obligations for spouses united by a common purpose – the creation of a family.

The author concludes that if the law provides for legal consequences in connection with «lawful inaction» in the form of a family legal connection, it can be argued that the family legal act is expressed through «legitimate silence». If there is a presumption of paternity, it can be assumed that the father of the child is aware of the legal consequences of his silence and wants them to occur.