Week 1: Family law
In the first lecture ‘Family Law’ first a general introduction on family law will provide the fundament
for further knowledge. Most important is the parent-child relation: who is a parent and who has
parental responsibilities? Parenthood and parental responsibilities are different legal concepts
governed by different rules. Both are relevant for the work with children. We will also address the
legal context of divorce and separation. Another aspect is what the rights of children are: they are
minor and therefore considered by the law as in need of special protection. Therefore they lack legal
capacity in a number of respects, but children have many rights as well. Both aspects will be central
elements of the lecture.
Lecture
Law of persons vs. Family law relationship between people, for example parents and children
Law of persons and family law: concepts
1. Legal parentage = who is the legal parent of a child? Different from who is the biological
parent
2. Parental responsibilities = ouderlijk gezag not about who is the parent, but who is allowed
to take care and raise the child
3. Contact after divorce/separation
4. Legal position minors who is a minor and what rights do they have
Best interests of the child
Article 3 Convention of the Rights of the Child states that the best interest of the child shall be a
primary consideration in all actions regarding children.
But what is the BIC? Is it possible to define?
Government committee on rethinking parentage (Staatscommissie Herijking Ouderschap) identifies 7
cores of good parenting:
1. Continuity in the relations with the carers;
2. Unconditional personal commitment
3. Care for the physical wellbeing of the child;
4. Raising the child to independence and to become a resilient citizen;
5. Organising and monitoring the raising and upbringing in the family, at schools and in the
public domain;
6. Taking care of the creation of the child’s identity in terms of parenthood
7. Taking care or organising and facilitating contact with those persons who are important for the
child
Where is this based on? Is this true? And how to weight these interests?
Wat is in het belang van het kind? Hoe zoek je dat uit? Afwegen wat het beste is!
Waar is het rapport op gebaseerd? Er is slechts één referentie to a social science source van dit rapport.
En wanneer we weten wat de belangen zijn, hoe wegen we deze dan? Belangen wijzen niet altijd uit in
dezelfde richting.
Parents and children
,Als je als juridisch ouder geen ouderlijk gezag hebt, heb je niet de voogdij. Dit is niet hetzelfde.
Contact, mostly after divorce
Het kan zijn dat ouders over alle drie de blokken beschikken (beste scenario), maar in sommige
situaties niet.
International issues of parentage
- Surrogaatouderschap heeft het kind het recht om te weten waar het vandaan komt?
- Hoe maak je de commission ouders de legal ouders?
- Stel het kind wil terug van de adoptieouders naar de biologische ouders?
Legal parentage
- Social parent = geen biologische ouder, maar parent who intends to take the child in its family
and take care of the child as it is its own
- Mostly the biological parents become legal parents, but social parents can also become legal
parents.
- Two parents at the most, even if there are three or more biological/social parents involved
- Basic model is a mother and a father as legal parents, but two mothers can also become both
legal mothers of the child, for two fathers it is more difficult to both get a status as a legal
parent
- Een kind kan slechts twee legal parents hebben
How do parents become legal parents? Art. 198 and 199 of Book 1 of the Civil Code (Burgerlijk
Wetboek)
• By giving birth (only mothers) ook bij embryo van twee andere ouders
• By being married /registered partner to the birth mother ook vrouwen bij onbekende donor
• By recognition (erkenning) (outside marriage and outside registered partnership)
toestemming van birth mother nodig, ook niet biologische vaders kunnen kind erkennen. Bij
bekende donor moet de tweede moeder kind erkennen.
• By adoption banden met originele ouders schaden en jij wordt de nieuwe ouder
Case 1: Has a biological father who is not a legal father a right to become a legal father if the
mother does not consent?
Go to the court, they can give the consent the mother doesn’t give.
Almost always consent will be given by the court, only in exceptional cases by for example risks.
Stel: vrouw heeft een affaire (B), maar is getrouwd (A). Ze krijgt een kind partner is de vader, niet
de biologische vader. Want die vrouw is getrouwd. Als ze niet getrouwd was, zou de biologische
vader makkelijker de legal parent worden. Stel ze gaat scheiden, dan is er een optie dat B de vader
wordt. Maar mevrouw kan haar kinderen niet aan B afstaan geen contracting in family law.
Legal consequences of being a parent and child
₋ Parentage is a lifelong legal bond which is unbreakable (usually) – different from parental
responsibilities (as long as child a minor)
₋ Child is legally integrated in a family
, ₋ Parents have a duty to maintain the child (kinderalimentatie) (up to 21 year) – the ones with
parental responsibilities do have to maintain
₋ Parents have parental responsibilities
₋ Child and parents: Inheritance rights
₋ Parents: right to give a name
₋ Child and parent: right to contact
₋ Parents: right to be informed about child
₋ Nationality of the child legal father, not with biological father – you don’t get that
nationality
₋ Residence rights of the child
₋ Tax law consequences
₋ Social security law consequences
₋ Criminal law
Case 2: Has a child a right to know its origins?
₋ Child is born in two mother family after concluding a donor contract with the sperm donor
₋ Contact between donor and child
₋ Conflict between mothers and the donor: no more contact
₋ Donor asks the court for a contact order but question rises: do the mothers have to inform the
child that the donor is his father before the child has contact with the donor? child needs to
know before meeting the donor
Parental responsibilities
Responsibility and care regarding minors (Art. 1:245 Civil Code):
1. Care and upbringing
2. Management of child’s property
3. Legal representation children are kinda disabled
Who has parental responsibilities?
1. Married or r.p. parents: both parents without having to do something (art. 1:251 CC)
2. Other parents: a) recognition followed by b) a simple registration in a p.r. registry at the court
(art. 1:252 CC)
3. One parent alone (mostly birth mother) (art. 1:253b)
4. One parent and one non-biological, social parent > court proceedings, best interest test
(art.1:253t CC)
₋ Parents can ask the court to decide in cases where they do not reach an agreement on issues of
care, for instance choice of school, medical treatment etc. (mostly after divorce)
Parental divorce
Divorce or separation:
a) Marriage > always court decision
b) Registered partnership > for parents with minor children always court decision
c) Informal cohabitation> no court decision, unless conflict
Joint parental responsibilities after divorce/separation
• After divorce both parents will exercise parental responsibilities together (art. 1:251 CC).
• They will have to make decisions on important issues together
Only in exceptional cases a court may order p.r. for only one parent,
If:
- an unacceptable risk that the child will feel itself entangled or lost between the parents without there
being an expectation that this will improve sufficiently within a foreseeable future, or
- a change of the parental responsibility is otherwise necessary in the best interests of the child.
Parental plan plan waar gescheiden ouder woont totdat het kind volwassen is
, • After divorce, both parents will have to make decisions on important issues together
• What are important decisions?
• School, medical treatment, moving to another city, passport, vaccination
• District Court Amsterdam: mother does not obey with court order that she is not allowed to
move to her home town after the divorce. On the contrary, she had one of the daughters IQ
tested and had applied for school admission in her home town, without the father’s consent.
Court orders the mother that the girls will have their main residence at the father’s home, if
not the mother will have to pay fines to the father
• District Court Noord Holland, replacing consent of the court to administer ADHD medication
- Main residence, division of care
- Child maintenance
- Spousal maintenance
- Issues related to family home
- Financial issues
- Pension issues
Parentage plan
Parents with minor children have to agree to a parenting plan at divorce including minimal the
following issues:
- Division of care and upbringing/contact
- Agreement on information and consultation
- Child maintenance waar woont het kind, wie onderhoudt het kind, contactafspraken
Als ouders dit plan niet inleveren, ouders praten tot ze een overeenkomst hebben. Als ouders dit niet
kunnen, vanwege bijvoorbeeld geweld, dan hoeft het niet. Als ouders zelf afspraken maken, zullen ze
deze eerder nakomen dan wanneer court deze afspraken maakt.
High conflict divorces
• Different definitions and concepts of what a high conflict divorce is (vechtscheiding)
• Different estimates of percentage high conflict divorces (10-15%/5500 children each year, but
not clear how many formerly cohabiting couples end up in a high conflict separation)
• Reducing problems is a priority of the Ministry of Justice:
- Different pilots such as ‘To do justice to children’
- Divorce Challenge
- Platform ‘Anders scheiden’ (Platform ‘To Divorce Differently’)
- Experimental legislation allowing for a family representative (lawyer or social scientist)
instead/or in addition to two lawyers and different procedures for divorce (less formal,
different role for the court)
Parents and children
Contact
Who has a right to contact? (Art. 1:377a CC) iedereen met een close band met het kind
