In our postmodern societies, children are sometimes in the centre of a complex network of links with several adults of both sexes 鈥� donor, surrogate, intended parents, biological parents, step-parents, foster-parents 鈥� and the law is not always clear as to how to recognise, protect and promote valuable relationships in such intricate configurations.
Based on an international review of the current state and foreseeable developments of the legal rules and principles in a wide range of jurisdictions in all the major legal systems, this two-day conference will address the following questions:
- Which relationships should be recognised and protected? Should any factual (biological and/or affective) relationship between an adult and a child be legally protected?
- Which legal tools should be used to provide recognition and protection? What should be the respective roles of legislation, case-law and contractual arrangements?
- Which analytical models may be used to re-think the law? How could legal scholars create new models to embrace postmodern family relationships?
Research objective
The purpose of the research project is twofold.聽
It aims to give a clear, concise and up-to-date account of the current legal regulation of relationships between adults and children in a wide range of selected countries. It also aims to contribute to the current debates on the future of such regulation by providing useful modelling of possible developments.聽
If we succeed in achieving this ambitious dual objective, the results of the research project 鈥� to be published in an edited volume 鈥� will also provide very valuable outcomes for family law researchers and national and international family law-makers.
Research methodology
The questionnaire invites national experts not only to describe the way in which their national law recognises and protects the postmodern diversity of biological and emotional ties between adults and children, but also to outline emerging trends and/or current debates relating to such recognition and protection.
The first half of the survey focuses on the current regulation of relationships in the traditional family, as it is still referred to (part I), in ART families (part II) and in adoptive, step and foster families (part III). The second half centres on two important transversal issues, namely the scope of the desirable recognition and protection (part IV) and the instruments to be used to achieve it (part V), before finally inviting experts to make observations on the model proposed as a research hypothesis by the promoters of the research project (part VI).聽
On the basis of the national reports, the members of the UCL Family Law Centre aim to propose an innovative, comparative and prospective analysis including an assessment of the impact of international law (with special focus on Human Rights Law and Private International Law). The national reports in addition to the Family Law Centre synthesis report will provide the basis for workshop discussions during the international conference to be held in 2017 in Brussels.
Book
provides a critical analysis of the different ways in which the law can recognise and protect relationships between adults and children in postmodern societies which are characterised by increasingly diverse family configurations. The book focuses of six fundamental questions:
- How does the law deal with the changes occurring in what is still referred to as the 鈥榯raditional鈥� family, such as for example anonymous childbirth, paternity disputes, shared custody?
- How does the law recognise and protect families conceived with help of assisted reproduction techniques, such as IVF, surrogacy, anonymous or non-anonymous gamete donation?
- How does the law recognise and protect families bound by de facto social or emotional ties, particularly in context of step-parents and step-children or foster families?
- Which relationships between adults and children should be recognised and protected by law? Should there be restrictions based on couple status, gender or number?
- If relationships between adults and children should be protected, which legal tools should be used: legal rules, judicial discretion or contractual freedom?
- Which common analytical framework could be used to understand 鈥� and face 鈥� the legal challenges raised by the transformations of family relationships?
These questions are addressed in-depth by an international team of distinguished family law experts of 19 different jurisdictions (Algeria, Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Democratic Republic of the Congo, England and Wales, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Romania, Spain, Switzerland, Sweden and the USA), covering the current state of affairs, foreseeable legal developments and thought-provoking reflections. The legal perspective of the national reports is complemented by interdisciplinary perspectives from experts in history, anthropology, psychology and philosophy, making this book a unique and essential source for anyone working in the field.
Link to the book: