The legal status of the family in Poland and the Nordic countries: The economic and legal approach in social sciences

Abstract

The article presents the concept of family in the legal systems of Poland and Nordic countries (i.e. Denmark, Finland, Sweden and Norway). Its first part presents an interdisciplinary approach to the family in social sciences. A review of literature leads the author to discern definitions of the family specific to the fields of sociology, economics, psychology and pedagogy The second chapter discusses the perception of the family in the Nordic model of capitalism and in the Polish economy from a purely economic standpoint. The socio-economic importance of the family in the countries studied is thus established. The third part of the article is devoted to comparative studies on definitions of the family (including definitions of marriage) in the civil law of Poland, Denmark, Finland, Sweden and Norway. Selected legal and normative acts identifying the family in the examined countries are compared. The research proves that the family should be understood as a group of people related by social, economic and legal bonds regardless of the number, age and gender of its members.