The word kinship is used in our language to define the connection or relationship between people who descend from the same trunk or root, or who are linked by blood ties, adoption or civil marriage or judicially recognized de facto “In general, the term kinship refers to the relationship or connection. It is the reciprocal relationship between people by consanguinity, affinity or adoption.
Kinship by consanguinity, Strictly speaking, implies the idea of consanguinity or community of blood that connects people who are directly descended from one another (grandparents, parents, grandchildren, etc.) or have a common ancestor (brothers, first cousins, etc.).
In the first case, we speak of kinship in a straight line. On the other hand, when the family relationship requires the search for a common ancestor, we speak of collateral kinship.
Adoptive kinship is, in a broad sense, the legal system that grants a similar rank to kinship by consanguinity and, being derived from adoption or adoptive kinship, it is known in classical terminology with the name (now in disuse) of kinship. civil, precisely with the intention to show that the family relationship existing between the adoptive parents and adoptees not derived from inbreeding, but from the very rules regulating adoption equating the adoptive relationship with consanguineous.
Kinship by affinity, on the other hand, implies a different role, since with that name historically the link or relationship between one of the spouses and relatives is known by the consanguinity of the other spouse (father-in-law or mother-in-law, son-in-law or daughter-in-law, brother-in-law or sister-in-law).
The Civil Code does not systematically regulate affinity, nor does it offer a specific notion of kinship by affinity. Given this, some authors consider the inconsequential contemplation of this family relationship, assuming that affinity is a mere historical reference or a sociology, if not purely literary. However, there is no doubt that our normative system continues to give relevance to kinship by affinity.
From a legal point of view, the concept is taken into account when certain procedures related to inheritance, social benefits, compensation, etc. are carried out. In this perspective, kinship is calculated taking into account the number of generations that separate the two involved in this process. In this way, each generation is taken into account as a degree, and the sum of the successive degrees forms the line of succession.
