The Reception of Family Law Provisions of Gaius’s Institutes in Modern Ukrainian Family Law
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: The relevance of the study is determined by the ongoing harmonisation of Ukrainian law with European legal standards, which highlights the need to examine the historical origins of national family law and the extent of its connection to the Roman legal tradition. Although scholars have paid considerable attention to the reception of Roman law in the fields of property, obligations, and inheritance, the family-law dimension of this issue remains only partially studied, while the provisions of Gaius’s Institutes concerning paternal authority and marital power warrant further comprehensive comparative legal analysis in light of the provisions of the Family Code of Ukraine. The purpose of the article is to analyse the family-law provisions of Gaius' Institutes and to determine the nature of their reception and transformation in contemporary Ukrainian family law. The study relies on the systemic, historical-legal, comparative-legal, and formal-legal methods, as well as the method of legal hermeneutics, which made it possible to compare the structure and content of Roman legal constructions with current family legislation. It is established that the family-law material of the Institutes is structured according to a status-and-power principle and is derivative in relation to the general doctrine of legal personality. The comparative analysis showed that the reception of Roman law in the sphere of marriage is largely structural in nature, that paternal authority underwent a profound functional transformation, and that marital power was not received at all. Three forms of reception of Roman legal doctrine are identified: doctrinal, conceptual-categorical, and transformational, the latter being the most characteristic of the family-law sphere. The findings deepen the understanding of the historical and legal foundations of contemporary Ukrainian family legislation and may be used to enhance its theoretical justification.
Source: Problems of Legality
Author: Liudmyla M. Mozoliuk-Bodnar
Language: English
Topic: Family and Matrimonial Law
Subfield: Law
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W7224922207