The Marburg Group’s Comments on the European Commission's Parenthood Proposal

On 7 December 2022, the European Commission published a Proposal for a Council Regulation on jurisdiction, applicable law, recognition of decisions and acceptance of authentic instruments in matters of parenthood and on the creation of a European Certificate of Parenthood (Parenthood Proposal, PP).

In the book, the Marburg Group undertakes the first extensive and in-depth assessment of the Parenthood Proposal. While the Group welcomes the initiative of the Commission and embraces the overall structure of the Parenthood Proposal, it suggests several fundamental changes.

The Commission proposes common rules for the Member States in the domain of parenthood, addressing the classic issues of private international law: jurisdiction in parenthood matters (Art. 6 et seq. PP), the applicable law to parenthood (Art. 16 et seq. PP) and the recognition of court decisions in parenthood matters (Art. 24 et seq. PP). Furthermore, inspired by the European Certificate of Succession, the Commission recommends the introduction of a European Certificate of Parenthood, enabling European citizens to prove a parenthood position throughout the European Union, with uniform effects (Art. 46 et seq. PP). Finally, the Parenthood Proposal targets the cross-border circulation of authentic instruments on parenthood with two separate regimes: not only shall the evidentiary effects of authentic instruments be extended to other Member States (Art. 44, 45 PP), as they already are under the Succession Regulation, but, following the concepts of the Brussels IIb Regulation, the Commission even suggests that authentic instruments with binding legal effects shall be recognised in the same way as court decisions (Art. 35 et seq. PP).

The Marburg Group comprises a group of German private international law scholars. Members of the working group are Christine Budzikiewicz (Marburg), Konrad Duden (Leipzig), Anatol Dutta (Munich), Tobias Helms (Marburg) and Claudia Mayer (Regensburg).

About the Authors

Christine Budzikiewicz is Professor in private law, private international and European law, as well as comparative law and co-director of the Institute of Family Law at the University of Marburg (Germany). In 2008/2009, she was a visiting fellow at the Utrecht Centre for European Research into Family Law (Netherlands). Christine is co-editor of the journal Praxis des Internationalen Privat- und Verfahrensrechts (IPRax) and co-organiser of the ‘Dialog Internationales Familienrecht’, an annual conference for the exchange between academia and practice on current issues of international family law. Christine is a member of the German Council of International Private Law, the reform commission of the German Family Court Association and the Ius Commune Research School (Netherlands). Her research interests focus, in particular, on issues of family and inheritance law, as well as private international law.

Konrad Duden is Professor in private law and private international law, as well as the Director of the Institute for Foreign and European Private and Procedural Law at the University of Leipzig (Germany). Previously, he was a Senior Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and Private International Law in Hamburg (Germany) (2012–2022). He completed his studies at the Universities of Heidelberg, Bilbao and Cambridge (Germany, Spain, United Kingdom). He has been a visiting fellow inter alia at the University of Oxford (United Kingdom) and has taught at the Lomonosov Moscow State University (Russia) and the International Hellenic University in Thessaloniki (Greece). Konrad has been awarded various research prizes, including the Otto Hahn Medal of the Max Planck Society, the Gerhard Kegel Prize of the German Association of International Law and the Kurt Hartwig Siemers Science Prize of the Scientific Society of Hamburg. His research interests lie in private international law, international civil procedure and comparative law, each with a focus on family matters.

Anatol Dutta is Professor in private law, private international law and comparative law at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (Germany). Previously, he was Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and Private International Law in Hamburg (2003–2014) and Professor at the University of Regensburg (Germany) (2014–2017). In 2009, he was a visiting fellow at the University of Cambridge (United Kingdom) and a scholar-in-residence at New York University (United States) in 2024. He regularly teaches as a guest lecturer at foreign universities, such as the Adam Mickiewicz University Poznań in Poland (2005–2014), at Vienna University of Economics and Business in Austria (2007), at Kyushu University Fukuoka in Japan (2012), at the University of Auckland in New Zealand (EUCN Visiting Fellow 2013), at the Lomonosov Moscow State University in Russia (2015), at Hebrew University Jerusalem, Israel (2022, 2023) and at the University of Catania in Sicily (2022). He is a corresponding member of the Cambridge Family Law Centre and an associate member of the Centre for Private International Law at the University of Aberdeen. Anatol Dutta is a member of the German Council of Private International Law and co-editor of the Zeitschrift für das gesamte Familienrecht (FamRZ), the leading family law journal for practitioners and academics in Germany, and the Zeitschrift für Europäisches Privatrecht (ZEuP). He has a special interest in family and succession law from a private international law, as well as a comparative and interdisciplinary, perspective.

Tobias Helms is Professor in private law, private international law and comparative law at the University of Marburg (Germany) and co-director of the Institute of Family Law. Tobias is Vice-President of the German Academic Society for Family Law, member of the Children’s Rights Commission of the German Family Court Association and member of the German Council of International Private Law. In 2021/2022, he was a member of the Expert Group of the European Commission on the recognition of parenthood between Member States. Tobias is editor of the Zeitschrift für das gesamte Familienrecht (FamRZ) and editor-in-chief of the family law journal Das Standesamt (StAZ). His areas of legal research are family law, international private law and inheritance law.

Claudia Mayer is Professor in private law and private international law at the University of Regensburg (Germany) since 2018. Prior to this, she held the chair in private law and German and international civil procedure law at the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen (Germany) (2017–2018). She completed her academic career at the universities of Passau (Germany) (2008–2017) and Chicago (United States) (2011–2012). Claudia is editor of the Zeitschrift für das gesamte Familienrecht (FamRZ). Her research interests lie primarily in national and international family law, with a particular focus on the conflicts of law and comparative aspects.

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