NEMANŽELSKÉ DIEŤA – RELIKT DOBY A PRÍKLAD SOCIÁLNEJ A PRÁVNEJ HUMANIZÁCIE V SLOVENSKÝCH PRÁVNYCH REÁLIÁCH MEDZIVOJNOVÉHO ČESKOSLOVENSKA

On the threshold of a new historical period, after the establishment of the Czechoslovak Republic, Slovak society became even more interested in marginalized social groups. One of them was the legally and socially ostracized group of illegitimate (“illegal”) children. The value-laden and intriguing debate from the legal point of view on the status of the illegitimate child led to gradual changes in Czechoslovak legislation and jurisprudence. Fundamental legal amendments got adopted to change the centuries-long degraded legal and social status of illegitimate children. They regulated social care, health care, guardianship, family matters, and especially the social and legal protection of illegitimate children. The law gradually granted a certain degree of protection to both illegitimate children and their mothers, even though their social status changed very slowly in the Slovak rural environment. The author presents the developing historical legal and social discourse and social and legal practice related to illegitimate children, which gradually led to the elimination of their unequal status compared to legitimate children.