Cross-border child relocation in the EU : the dynamics of Europeanisation

Abstract

Cross-border child relocation cases are among the most difficult issues in family law. Commentators across the globe disagree on the interpretation of the child's best interests and the relevance of adults' autonomy in this context. As relocations touch upon free movement—the foundation of European Union law—there is an increasing interest among scholars and practitioners alike in the influence of EU law on child relocation. However, considering the EU’s scope of competence in family law matters and the limited jurisprudence of the Court of Justice on such issues, many questions regarding the reach of EU law have remained open. This book is the first monograph to investigate the dynamics of Europeanisation of cross-border child relocation law. What is the scope and nature of EU law's influence—both current and prospective—on cross-border child relocation? What are its effects on national legal systems? The book analyses the European legal framework of child relocation and harmonisation prospects in the field. It demonstrates the limitations of the legal pressures potentially exerted by the EU, considering the nature of its competence, but simultaneously conceptualises EU law’s influences from a constructivist perspective. Free movement constitutes the main paradigm of EU law and a defining feature of its community, shifting the scope of autonomy granted to it by its members. Hence, a mixture of traditional values and new ways of life—sanctioned by supranational law—might lead to new dilemmas regarding the assessment of children's and adults’ interests in child relocation cases. The suggested approach allows such influences to be analysed together with legal doctrines, both at the EU and the national level. Therefore, despite the current lack of explicit EU action on child relocation, the book qualitatively examines the dynamics of Europeanisation of child relocation sensu stricto—the processes of adaptation to EU law to be observed in child relocation case law from Germany, Poland, and England and Wales. The book shows how national judges occasionally draw from EU law’s contextual and legal features, but EU law does not (yet) seem to fundamentally challenge the established child relocation doctrines and lead to their convergence.