AFFECTION AS A LEGAL VALUE IN BRAZILIAN FAMILY LAW

Abstract

This article analyzes affection as a legal value in Brazilian Family Law, emphasizing the shift from a patrimonialized and hierarchical family to a constitutional understanding founded on the dignity of the human person, family solidarity, equality among children, and the comprehensive protection of children and adolescents. The research begins with the question of to what extent affection can produce legal effects without transforming love into a coercive obligation. To answer this question, a bibliographic, documentary, and jurisprudential research approach is adopted, employing a qualitative methodology, examining specialized doctrine, constitutional and infraconstitutional legislation, paradigmatic judgments of the Supreme Federal Court and the Superior Court of Justice, as well as the innovation introduced by Law No. 15.240/2025 in the Statute of the Child and Adolescent. The study demonstrates that affection should not be confused with an intimate feeling imposed by the State, but understood as a legal category objectified in conduct of care, coexistence, assistance, presence, recognition, and parental responsibility. It is concluded that Law No. 15.240/2025 consolidates a previous doctrinal and jurisprudential trend by characterizing emotional abandonment as a civil offense, without dispensing with the need to demonstrate the prerequisites for civil liability. Thus, affection assumes normative relevance as a criterion for interpretation, a basis for the protection of personality, and a parameter for liability when its absence becomes a legally qualified omission.