Evolution of Legislation on Liability for Failure to the Obligation to Provide Support in Family Law of Ukraine

Abstract

In the scientific article the author investigates the historical aspects of the evolution of legislation that operated in the Ukrainian lands on liability for failure to the obligation to provide support for family members, including spouses, parents, and children. In particular, it has been analyzed the content of the basic acts of family law operated in the period from Kievan Rus to independent Ukraine, such as ‘Russkaya Pravda’(‘Russian Truth’), Lithuanian Statutes of 1529, 1566, 1588, the draft codification of family law ‘Rights under which the Maloros People Are Judged’ , Code of Laws of the Russian Empire, the Galician Civil Code, the Austrian Civil Code, the first decrees of the Council of People’s Commissars of the Ukrainian SSR regulating family legal relationships, as well as the Codes of 1919, 1926, 1969 and 2002 (taking into account the changes made in 2017-2018). Based on the analysis, the author determined that the issue of liability for obligation to provide support in Ukraine received proper legal regulation only with the adoption of the current Family Code of Ukraine in 2002. The first monuments of Ukrainian law, such as ‘Russkaya Pravda’(‘Russian Truth’) and Lithuanian Statutes, unfortunately did not contain rules regulating alimony relationships between spouses, parents and children, as well as other family members. The following acts of Family Law that were in force in the Ukrainian lands defined the alimony obligations of spouses, parents and children, but did not provide for liability for their violation. The exceptions were the norms of the Galician Civil Code, which provided for the liability of the father for the non-recognition of his illegitimate child and the non-payment of amounts on the child’s support in two-, three- four times the size of amount, as well as the rules of criminal legislation of the Russian Empire and the Soviet period for determining the liability for malicious evasion of alimony payments. Unfortunately, the existing regulatory framework regulates in detail only the issue of liability for the non-fulfillment of parental support obligations in relation to children. Failure to perform other alimony duties, unfortunately, did not receive such a reaction from the state (the only exception is the malicious evasion of payment established by court decision for the maintenance of disabled parents, which is a crime).