LA AUTORIDAD FAMILIAR DEL PADRASTRO O MADRASTRA EN LA LEGISLACIÓN ARAGONESA: DEL APÉNDICE FORAL DE 1925 AL ART. 72 DE LA LEY 13/2006 DE DERECHO DE LA PERSONA.

Abstract

This paper is a response to the current social, political and legal debate about the new kinds of families, and more particularly those the Anglo-Saxon world calls "stepfamilies", those family nuclei generated by the partnership or marriage of people who bring with them the small children of previous relationships to live together in the new family nucleus. The presence of this type of family is growing daily, causing legislators in many countries near Spain and far away to wonder what legal relationship it would be in the children's best interest to assign to the new de facto parent-child relationships found in such families. The question has reached our country as well, and in some regions of Spain studies and legislative proposals are underway, such as the Catalan bill that will probably become law very soon. The pioneer in this area, however, is the legislation of Aragón, which has long stood as an example of modernity. Aragón envisaged such relations in the 1925 Appendix, the 1967 Compilation and the Act of the Aragón Parliament of 16 May 1985 and it now covers the issue in Act 13/2006 on the rights of the person, under the umbrella of what is called the Aragón Family Authority. Analysis of the process Aragon's legislation has followed in these matters over a span of nearly a century offers a single model that could be taken into account in any of our current reflections. It also underscores the fact that gradual recognition of the role of the stepfather and stepmother has favoured the social acceptance of stepparents and fostered legislative consensus concerning the adaptations our society has required over time.