CONSIDERACIONES GENERALES SOBRE LA OBLIGACIÓN LEGAL DE ALIMENTOS ENTRE PARIENTES.

Abstract

Kinship constitutes the basis on which the legal obligation to provide maintenance rests, founded on the existence of a family tie between the maintenance provider and the maintenance recipient. Maintenance represents a claim eminently bound to the family and its assets, whereby the needs of a needy relative are covered via the economic means available to his kinsman, who is obligated to provide such coverage. It is a legal obligation that is regulated in Title VI of Book I under the title, «On maintenance among kinsmen» (sections 142 to 153 of the Spanish Civil Code), which is applied on a subsidiary basis to other kinds of maintenance obligations as well. As the authors have approached their subject as a compulsory legal relationship, in their study they choose to follow the classic outline habitually used for such relationships; thus, they discuss the points concerning concept, fundament, nature, events, personal elements, inrem elements, elements of form, compliance and termination. To accomplish this, the authors discuss the matter in the light of not only doctrine, but also case law, referring especially to the most-recent case law.