From the title itself, the research project is related to Art. 8 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms signed in Rome in 1950 (ECHR) and its interpretation and application by the European Court of Human Rights. The project aims to understand whether, in this global era, there is a unitary concept of "family" within the complex set of models characterizing the arrangement of Italian and European legal order and society. This will be achieved through an interdisciplinary inquiry encompassing legal, philosophical, psychological and sociological disciplines. Regarding the European order, the analysis of the interpretation of Art. 8, and therefore the notion of "family life", shows a progressive enlargement of the notion of family: from the unitary and exclusive model of the marriage-based family taken out by a man and a woman, to a plurality of family models that range from heterosexual and homosexual formal cohabitation, to same-sex marriage and civil unions. However, the plurality of family models that characterize most of the legislations of European countries shows that various legal instruments have based them. While some countries have chosen homosexual marriage, other countries preferred a different model, such as civil union, as Italy. The complexity of family models opens up the scenario to new forms of filiation. Thus, the traditional pattern of biological filiation is accompanied by new ones: from heterologous fertilization to stepchild adoption and surrogate maternity, allowing access to filiation to couples of the same sex. Some of these tools are forbidden in some countries, as in the case of maternity surrogacy. The sociological and psychological reading of the processes described above will allow to highlight the determinants of the current social change, with particular attention to those that determine the different choices of national legislators in the principle included in art. 8 of the ECHR.
