
The fundamental value of family law is the best interest of the child, and all regulations in the sphere of relations between parents and children are subordinated to it. This requires the child’s parents’ cooperation in the exercise of parental responsibility, which should be exercised as required by the child’s best interests and social interests. Equated with parental responsibility, the duties, and rights of parents towards the child are the same, regardless of whether they are married or not, or live together or apart. In the event of a divorce or separation of parents remaining in an informal relationship, the court decides on the manner of exercising parental authority. One of the ways of exercising parental authority is alternate custody which enables parents to actively participate in their child’s life.
The condition for awarding alternate custody is, however, the best interests of the child and the maturity of parents included in the positive prognosis of harmonious cooperation. To elaborate on this issue, the following methods were used: dogmatic, appropriate for the analysis of legal provisions and judicial decisions, and a critica analysis of the literature on the subject in the range of the functioning institution of alternating custody.