Abstract

This article discusses the scope of the constitutional principle of protection of the family. The author believes that this protection should be in particular manifested in three areas: the area of information autonomy of the family (understood as the possibility of controlling certain information on family life, e.g. concerning emotional or economic ties), the area of decision-making autonomy (understood as the freedom to decide about family life), as well as the area of family stability (by guaranteeing that nobody will intrude into internal family relations which could affect family stability, e.g. by farcing to do something against another family member or by differentiating the legal status of its members).

So understood constitutional protection should be extended to family members regardless of formal legal relations, so the family will comprise children taken to be brought up without establishing legal ties (e.g. children of the other spouse), as well as cohabitation relationships. A reservation should be made, however, that all legal mechanisms aimed at protecting the family in this broad sense should be so constructed so as not to discourage marriage. Therefore, when providing support to single parents taken into account should be the factual situation of bringing the child alone rather than the marital status of the single parent.