Notions and Concepts in Family Law. Discrepancy Between Polish Family Law and Social Reality

Modern times are an arena for two opposing trends: the liberalization of mores and laws, and the distancing of changes and adoption of a conservative position against those that occur. Polish family law clearly fails to keep pace with the changes taking place and does not perceive new phenomena. Is this an intentional act of the legislator leading to the preservation of traditional values, or the expression of disapproval and belief in the transitoriness of new phenomena? It comes together with the introduction of new terminology or new interpretations of already existing concepts. Hence the meaning of some of the current concepts in everyday language differs significantly from their meaning arising from legal instruments. The article is an attempt to deal with this problem.