New Dissertation: European Private International Law on Legal Parentage?
A new dissertation on legal parentage has recently been published: Kees Saarloos (Maastricht University), European private international law on legal parentage? – Thoughts on a European instrument implementing the principle of mutual recognition in legal parentage.
A summary has kindly been provided by the author:
The first part of the dissertation is a comparative analysis of the law on legal parentage in England & Wales, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden. The second part examines the private international law on legal parentage in these countries. Special attention has been paid to the question to what extent legal parentage that has been established abroad, is recognised in the legal systems involved. In the third part, the influence of EU law on the free movement of persons on the recognition of civil status (Garcia Avello, Grunkin and Paul) has been analysed.
The conclusion is that at this point in time, the case law of the ECJ only obliges Member States to recognise a civil status that has been established in another Member State, if the civil status does not violate the public policy of the recognising state and if there is no conflict of interest between the persons involved. Further implementation of the principle of mutual recognition in legal parentage requires action by the European legislator. In the final chapter, some suggestions have been made to work out the principle of mutual recognition in legal parentage. The starting point is that the law of the child’s habitual residence should govern the registration of parentage at birth and the validity of the acknowledgment of parenthood; in court proceedings on parentage however, the grounds for jurisdiction should be limited and the courts should apply the lex fori.
The electronic version, including an English and a French summary, is available free of charge at the website of the library of the University of Maastricht: http://dissertaties.ub.unimaas.nl/default.asp?lang=eng