Research objective
The purpose of the research project is twofold.
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.
If we succeed in achieving this ambitious dual objective, the results of the research project – to be published in an edited volume – 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).
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.