Public-legal significance of civil status acts in family sphere in Spain: problems of legislation and law enforcement

Abstract

In this article, the author, using the example of legislation and law enforcement activities in Spain, attempts to show that acts of a person's civil status, including those characterizing his marital status, have various legal consequences, both of a private and public nature. State registration of individual biographical and demographic characteristics of a person is necessary for his individualization and identification, as well as for ensuring the legal security of public relations. In addition, the registration of the population in the format of civil status records provides the state with the opportunity to form the correct demographic policy in society, budget planning in social and economic areas. In Spain, registry information in the field of civil status records is collected, processed, transmitted and submitted according to new rules that were gradually put into effect from 2017 to 2021. Currently, the civil register is an exclusively electronic information resource built on an extraterritorial basis, which provides many advantages to both state bodies and directly to citizens-applicants.