LAW AND SOCIAL CHANGE:RIGHT TO A NAME, PERSONAL IDENTITYAND PRIVATE LIFE IN CONTEXT

The name is the key to identify a single individual and to link a person to herfamily, as well as the primary interface in the relationship between a person and thecommunity he or she lives in.This study claims that private life and private autonomy are becominginterpretative arguments and vehicles to ensure that law would be able to follow –and sometimes to chase – social changes in personal and family life, in finding newrules to regulate the relationship between the individual, the family and publicauthorities or between a private individual and the community she interfaces with.1Judicial interpretative activity often reveals legislative shortcomings. Inparticular, the judiciary goes ahead with creative interpretation of implicit principlesand moderately innovative interpretations of “old” pieces of legislation.Over the past few decades social changes due to:- the free movement of people in and around Europe (transborder dimension);- the metamorphosis of family forms and relations;have generated many issues, triggering public and state interventionregarding private choices of name, surname and personal identity ofindividuals.