Reflections and Challenges Proposed Through Feminist Reading Concerning Breach of Conjugal Duties

Abstract

The Civil Liability field is in ongoing expansion because of social changes, which are related with the reorganization of the Civil Law from its repersonalization and dematerialization. Constant transformations can also be perceived by Contemporary Family Law, allowing fruitful debates concerning discontinuities and abidance in the relations between people within the family, historically based in hierarchic and disparate legal constructions. Enabling the interface between these two fields of Law, a feminist analysis for the discussion of the breach of conjugal duties is developed from civil liability. Thus, reflections beyond extramarital behavior on the use of the civil liability in cases of gender inequality between spouses/cohabitants are opportune. These cases happen, for example, from the breach of mutual respect and mutual assistance, as the unequal distribution of domestic chores and care with the offspring, still marked by an active sexual division of labor.