ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the current state of family and succession law in Brazil. The underlying principle behind these bodies of law is a move towards secularization, which is influenced by feminist social movements, and a lessening of church power during the military dictatorship that ruled Brazil between 1964 and 1985. The military dictatorship occupied much of the social space occupied by the church prior to 1964, and, when the military left power, the vacuum was only partly reoccupied by the church, with secular civil society gaining prominent ground in the legal and political arena. This secularization is reflected in rules like equality between men and women, a renewed focus on the interests of all persons as agents (instead of objects) of family law (a notion that elevates the status of children and persons with disabilities), and the recognition of families and unions beyond the traditional heteronormative construct of man-woman-children (which means the recognition of single-parent and same-sex families). Many of those developments took place first in family law and were extended to succession law by association, which is why most of the focus of this chapter is on family law. And, as important as secularization has been for the development of family and succession law in Brazil, a recent turn to conservative Christianity in politics seems to threaten to erode some of the gains in these areas, particularly those of the last decade.
Marques, Claudia Lima and Lixinski, Lucas, Family and Succession Law (October 20, 2017) in Fabiano Deffenti and Welber Barral (eds), Introduction to Brazilian Law (Kluwer Law International, 2nd ed 2017) 51-72.
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