Minimum Standards of Childcare in Unpaid Family Work: Criminal and Administrative Offence Thresholds for Neglect in the Slovak Republic

This paper examines minimum standards of care for a minor child performed as unpaid family work in the domestic setting in the Slovak Republic. It addresses the gap between the Family Act’s broadly framed formulation of parental duties and the concrete ad-ministrative-offence and criminal-law consequences of their breach. Methodologically, the paper draws on doctrinal (normative) analysis and systematic interpretation of rele-vant provisions of the Family Act, the School Administration Act, and the Criminal Code, assessed against legality, proportionality, and ultima ratio. In the administrative-offence sphere, attention is given primarily to education-related duties (enrolment, quantified thresholds of unexcused absence, and cooperation with schools and, where necessary, professional support services). In the criminal-law sphere, the analysis focuses on Endan-gering the Moral Upbringing of Youth and Ill-treatment of a Close Person and a Person in One’s Care, including the significance of omissions. On this basis, the paper formulates and categorizes minimum standards into five clusters: material provision and health protec-tion; upbringing and supervision; education; institutional cooperation; and protection against violence and suffering. The paper concludes that clearer normative anchoring of these minima could strengthen legal certainty and recommends considering a demonstra-tive list of core parental duties in the Family Act, while avoiding excessive rigidity; the articulation of such standards also serves a preventive function given social stratification and intergenerational patterns of maladaptive upbringing.