Family responsibilities as the moral basis of marriage

Abstract

In this article, on the basis of historical, comparative legal structural-functional and dialectical methods of research, the author examines the institution of marriage and family in the spiritual and moral dimension. The sources of Byzantine law have influenced the modern understanding of the family and its consolidation in the legislation of the Russian Federation. Particular attention in this article is given to the duties of spouses. After analyzing the family legislation of a number of Slavic states (Bulgaria, Serbia, etc.), the author found that little attention was paid to the duties of spouses in these documents. The duties of spouses are considered in the context of property relations, which emphasizes the modern influence of Western European liberal concepts of law. The author comes to the conclusion that the institution of the family cannot be measured by any material values in their utilitarian perception. That is why, when society perceives the moral essence of a family union based on obligation, having passed the path of «knowledge testing», such institutions for regulating property relations as a marriage contract will become unclaimed, which even today carries destructive properties for people who are not only married, but also on the way to it, a priori laying the motives of doubt and distrust between spouses (future spouses). Modern family legislation of the Russian Federation requires consistent and progressive ethization and implementation of a wider «catalog of duties» of spouses, based on the sources of Russian law (church law) and theological sources, which will gradually free the Family Code of the Russian Federation from neo-liberal tendencies that significantly impede the development of native Russian family tradition, family policy, which must be protected from vulgar positivism and ideological labels.