Encyclopedia of Early Modern History Online

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Adoption
(762 words)

1. Origin and development

The term adoption derives from Lat. adoptio; it denotes the establishment of a parent-child relationship as a legal fiction: kinship (Family) is based not on biological descent but on a formal legal act between the adopter and the adoptee. Adoption in the Roman legal sense was taken up and studied in the European countries north of the Alps in the period when Roman law was borrowed (Reception of ius commune), but the legal institution of adoption was not universally incorp…

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Koch, Elisabeth, “Adoption”, in: Encyclopedia of Early Modern History Online, Editors of the English edition: Graeme Dunphy, Andrew Gow. Original German Edition: Enzyklopädie der Neuzeit. Im Auftrag des Kulturwissenschaftlichen Instituts (Essen) und in Verbindung mit den Fachherausgebern herausgegeben von Friedrich Jaeger. Copyright © J.B. Metzlersche Verlagsbuchhandlung und Carl Ernst Poeschel Verlag GmbH 2005–2012. Consulted online on 19 March 2024 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/2352-0272_emho_COM_016603>
First published online: 2015
First print edition: 20160321



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