A CHILD FOR THE FAMILY OR A FAMILY FOR THE CHILD: ADOPTION IN ROMAN AND MODERN LAW
A CHILD FOR THE FAMILY OR A FAMILY FOR THE CHILD: ADOPTION IN ROMAN AND MODERN LAW

Summary/Abstract: The paper analyzes the evolutionary changes of the institution of adoption from Roman to modern law, with special reference to the purpose intended to be achieved through adoption. In ancient Rome, adoption served the interests of the pater familias whose family faced extinction due to the lack of biological descendants. Only after the war events of the 20th century, due to the great increase in the number of children without parental care, did war-impoverished states, which were not able to take care of all those children, begin to change the concept of the institution of adoption. Since then, the purpose of adoption has ceased to be the continuation of the adopter’s family threatened with extinction. Adoption has primarily begun to serve the interests of the child without parental care.

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