Direitos sucessórios nas relações de concubinato adulterino paralelo e simultâneo ao casamento ou à união estável

Abstract

With the advent of the 1988 Constitution, the Family Law was restructured, based on the principles of human dignity, monogamy, affection, and the plurality of family forms, introducing a new concept of family. This new order guarantees isonomy among these models, granting integral protection to all members and condemning any type of discrimination against any of them. In this context, affairs outside marriages and/or civil unions are increasingly more frequent. However, in the case of adulterous concubinage, there are gaps in legislation regarding the succession rights of concubines, who are left at the mercy of judicial decisions, rendering legal uncertainty. Most legislators are based on the principle of monogamy, repudiating adulterous concubinage, within the scope of Family Law. Hence, this type of case ends up falling under the scope of the Law of Obligations and not in the Family Law. This results in greater legal protection for the primary spouse/civil union partner family and the non-communication nor transfer of assets among the extra-conjugal partners. There is, nonetheless, a need for legislators to offer legal support or for judicial precedents that bind the courts, in order to grant a greater juridical security towards the dignity of the human person to those who find themselves in this sort of situation.