Definition of Brother-in-law | What is Brother-in-law

Concept and Meaning of Brother-in-law

The brother-in-law is the brother of the spouse or the spouse of the brother. It's a family relationship that a person earns with the marriage of his brother or sister, or if this person gets married and the spouse is brothers.
Examples: Carlos and Marta are brother and sister. Silvia is the wife of Carlos and Vincent, the husband of Marta. This means that Carlos and Vincent are brothers-in-law and Marta and Silvia are sisters-in-law.
In addition, Silvia (wife of Charles) has a brother named Raul. Carlos and Raul, therefore, are also of brothers-in-law. Thus, it can be said that Carlos has two brothers: Vincent (husband of his sister Marta) and Raul (the brother of his wife Silvia).
This allows us to say that the brother-in-law is a form of relationship by affinity. There is no link of blood between the brothers-in-law, but this relationship is created from the union in the marriage of a relative by blood. The brother-in-law relationship implies a legal relationship and not the existence of a natural reason or blood. Legally, the brothers-in-law are relatives to the second degree with a preferred collateral kinship line.
The concept of co-beau-frere, on the other hand, is used to name the couple from the spouse of someone else than the sister. In other words, the wife of the brother of a person is the co-belle-soeur of it. If we go back to our example, Vincent (the husband of Marta, the sister of Charles) and Silvia (wife of Charles) are co-beaux-brothers.

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