The current system of attribution of the paternal surname to children "is the legacy of a patriarchal conception of the family", and of "a waning marital authority, no longer consistent with the principles of the legal system and with the constitutional value of equality between man and woman".
The Council underlines this, taking up one of its 2006 rulings, in the order with which it raised before itself the question on the constitutional legitimacy of article 262 of the Civil Code which establishes as a rule the assignment to children of the paternal surname .