On the Influence of the Law (and History) on Family Relationships in Switzerland

The purpose of the paper is to present the fundamental laws regulating family relations in Switzerland. The historically shaped practice of these relations, where over the years the legally and actually dominant role was assigned to the father, as the head of the family, has been rather rapidly rejected on normative grounds in the 1970s. The emancipation of women, initially in the area of suffrage, led to the change of the Swiss family model. The changes in legislation have enabled the phenomenon of constantly rising share of families not based on the traditional structure – ones whose essence no longer is a married couple with children.