Family law contains the rules on entering into marriages and civil partnerships and on dissolving them. Specifically, it governs the general legal effects of marriage (or civil partnership), matrimonial and civil-partnership property law, and divorce (or dissolution of a civil partnership) together with its legal consequences, such as maintenance and the equalisation of pension rights. It also contains provisions on the legal status of cohabiting couples and on engagement.
In addition, it contains rules on parentage and on the mutual maintenance obligations of relatives, on the rights and duties between parents and children, and on adoption – known collectively as the law of parent and child.
Disputes or disagreements concerning curatorship, legal guardianship of adults, guardianship of minors and other family matters are decided by the family court or the court of protection (Betreuungsgericht, formerly the guardianship court).
In Germany, substantive family law is set out essentially in Book Four, of the same name, of the five books of the German Civil Code (Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch, BGB) (sections 1297–1888 BGB). The legal institution of civil partnership is governed by the Civil Partnership Act (LPartG); since 1 October 2017 it has no longer been possible to enter into new civil partnerships. Special provisions for court proceedings are contained in the Code of Civil Procedure (ZPO) and in the Act on Proceedings in Family Matters and in Matters of Non-contentious Jurisdiction (FamFG), which replaced the Act on Matters of Non-contentious Jurisdiction (FGG). The Minimum Maintenance Regulation (Mindestunterhaltsverordnung) and the Advance Maintenance Payments Act (Unterhaltsvorschussgesetz) are also relevant to child maintenance law.
In the GDR, family law had been governed since 1965 outside the Civil Code in a separate Family Code (FGB).