In this study the authors examine the issue regarding the ways to determine lineage and the recognition of the child (art. 408 and art. 415 and the following of the new Romanian Civil Code - Law No. 287/2009, republished on July 15, 2011 and entered into force on October 1st, 2011) noting the differences in relation to the previous regulation (the Family Code in force from February 1st, 1954 until September 30, 2011); in this context, on the one hand, the positive aspect of the new regulations is highlighted, and on the other hand, a series of lex ferenda proposals are also being carried out.

The new Civil Code, unlike the old Code, includes a quasi-complete provision on the invalidity of the contract based on the fundamental distinction between absolute invalidity and relative invalidity. Invalidity - either absolute or relative - can be both complete and partial. Regardless of its form or the way it is established or in which it operates, partial invalidity may appear either as an explicit invalidity, therefore, in the form of clauses declared null or voidable or, more recently, either in the form of clauses deemed unwritten, or as tacit invalidity (obviously partial). In terms of terminology, the phrase or formula “clauses deemed unwritten” is an easy, therefore practical way to designate certain ancillary unlawful clauses which are automatically void. Ratione temporis, partial invalidity, regardless of its form, is and shall remain subject to the law in force at the date of conclusion of the contract and not to the law in force at the date the invalidity was determined or that when the contract was cancelled and neither subject to the law in force at the date the parties are reinstated to the previous status.