Legal issue: the constitutionality of the prohibition against adopting children by persons having a criminal record.

Ratio decidendi: the Court came to conclusion that current legislative prohibition is unreasonably severe, because it extends to persons who committed crimes of average and small gravity, including crimes committed by negligence. Such persons are automatically denied an opportunity to adopt children, regardless of any circumstances, even if the potential adopter, in view of actual relations between him and the child and the nature of the act imputed to him is capable of providing a full-fledged physical, mental and moral upbringing of the child without jeopardizing his psyche and health. In this respect the contested regulation does not conform to the Constitution. The federal legislator must make amendments to it, and courts must evaluate whether the adoption of a child by a particular person accords to the purpose of maximum protection of rights and lawful interests of the child, of guaranteeing his full-fledged physical, psychological, mental and moral development without putting him in any jeopardy.