Adoption

ADOPTION. - This term designates the institution whose purpose is the transfer of an individual from one kinship group to another, through the creation of a filiation that is called civil insofar as it arises not from a blood tie, but from a juridical relationship established by consent with the conditions and forms laid down by law. Traces of it are found among the most ancient peoples, such as the Babylonians (law of Hammurabi) and the Greeks. It is disputed whether the Hebrews knew and practiced adoption; the biblical texts usually adduced (Gen. 48:12-20; Ex. 1:10; Esth. 2:7b) are not conclusive. But account must be taken of the practice of adoption widespread throughout the Semitic East, of which the tablets of Nuzu have recently given new testimony. From Roman law, which provides its fundamental systematization, it passed into canon law and modern civil law.

The Italian Civil Code regulates adoption in articles 291 ff.; according to the Code of Canon Law (cann. 1059 and 1080), the importance of this institution is limited instead to the fact that from it there derives, in certain cases, a matrimonial impediment (v. COGNAZIONE LEGALE).