Abstract

The analysis of Italian law shows the variability of the legal notion of family depending on the different fields of law, but also within them. Under this perspective, the present essay attempts to reconstruct with an inductive approach the definition of "family", identifying and conceptualizing the indicators of the existence of family life that emerge in different fields of the law, namely Labour Law, Tax Law, Family Law and Migration Law. In our opinion these indicators are: a) close emotional ties, b) cohabitation and living together, c) collaboration and d) economic solidarity. In fact, this approach conforms both to the consolidated case law of the ECtHR, which anchors the notion of family life (art. 8 ECHR) to factual elements, and to Italian Constitution, which, qualifying the family as a natural society, wanted to acknowledge the pre and praeter juridical nature of the family.