The present “revolution” in biological technology is leading lawyers to fundamentally reconsider the laws of human reproduction .What is at stake is not only the transmission of life but also the transmission of a certain order of the things on which society is based. This is the reason why the law has always sought to regulate the transmission of life. Covering themes from Canon and medieval Roman Law to the 1804 ‘Code civil’, the work includes twenty-three articles on the history of law about a number of modern-day questions. They deal with the close connections long maintained between marriage and procreation; with natural and legal "filiation" especially regarding the very delicate problems of evidence; with the institution of legitimation but also of the child as a person. There is also an article on the important matter of the "conceived child".
This book deals with the implementation of the rights of the child as enshrined in the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 21 countries from Europe, Asia, Australia, and the USA. It gives an overview of the legal status of children regarding their most salient rights, such as the implementation of the best interest principle, the right of the child to know about of his/her origin, the right to be heard, to give medical consent, the right of the child in the field of employment, religious education of children, prohibition of physical punishment, protection of the child through deprivation of parental rights and in the case of inter-country adoption. In the last 25 years since the Convention on the Rights of the Child was adopted, many States Parties to the Convention have made great efforts to pass legislation regulating the rights of the child, in their commitment to the improvement of the legal status of the child. However, is that enough for any child to live better, safer, and healthier? What are the practical effects of this international as well as many national instruments in the everyday life of children? Have there been any outcomes in terms of improvement of their status around the world, and improvement of the conditions under which they live, since the Convention entered into force? In tackling these questions, this work presents a comparative overview of the implementation of the Convention, and evaluates the results achieved.
Problèmes de Conflits de Lois en Matière de Filiation, Jacques Foyer Jacques Foyer, Professor at the University of Paris II, notes in introduction of his course that it can be enlightening to compare the different modern methods of solution of the conflict of laws regarding filiation. The study of the different systems shows that there exist at least three methods to contradict the classic choice-of-law rule. The course is structured around the analysis of these three methods. Firstly, it is the criticism of the rigid character and the unpredictability of the traditional rule that triggers the temptation of a manipulation of the choice of law rule. The author then points out that one could question its abstract and arbitrary character, which leads on the one hand to an attempt to hierarchization, and on the other hand, to a diversification of the choice-of-law rules. Lastly, it is the principle of the foreign law's purpose to govern legal relationships in the same way as the lex fori that is questioned, which leads to its partial elimination to the profit of a more or less systematic application of the territorial law or of the one of the court hearing the action. General Course on Private International Law, Friedrich K. Juenger According to Friedrich Juenger, Professor at the University of California in Davis, the outstanding characteristic of the conflict of laws is the lack of consensus on the discipline's goals and methods. He proposes to put the accent in his course on the events for which public international law must find a solution in order to avoid the constant danger that threatens the discipline: that is, to become a simple academic game. Three examples of reported cases and the kinds of issues they raise are given in the Introduction. Professor Juenger next gives a detailed historical overview of the conflict of laws, from Antiquity to Mancini. In addition, the author presents the emergence of new orthodoxies, or rather proposes to re-examine the traditional doctrines, and points out the advantages of a teleological approach. That allows him to revisit the three cases mentioned in the Introduction. Les Bases éthiques pour le Droit et la Société Perspectives de la Commission indépendante sur les questions humanitaires internationales, Sadruddin Aga Khan Conference of July 30, 1985 Sadruddin Aga Khan, President of the Independent Commission on International Humanitarian Issues, recalls in his course on the ethical bases of law and society that the role of the commission he presides is to remind us of the basic elements of a code of ethics which has the same spiritual significance as that found in all major religions. Lawyers as well as scientists, adds the author, must mobilize their immense resources, bearing in mind that the rule of law should never disregard moral appreciation.
The Academy is a prestigious international institution for the study and teaching of Public and Private International Law and related subjects. The work of the Hague Academy receives the support and recognition of the UN. Its purpose is to encourage a thorough and impartial examination of the problems arising from international relations in the field of law. The courses deal with the theoretical and practical aspects of the subject, including legislation and case law. All courses at the Academy are, in principle, published in the language in which they were delivered in the "Collected Courses of the Hague Academy of International Law .
In Paris during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the practice of adopting children was strongly discouraged by cultural, religious, and legal authorities on the grounds that it disrupted family blood lines. In fact, historians have assumed that adoption had generally not been practiced in France or in the rest of Europe since late antiquity. Challenging this view, Kristin Gager brings to light evidence showing how married couples and single men and women from the artisan neighborhoods in early modern Paris did manage to adopt children as their legal heirs. In so doing, she offers a new, richly detailed portrait of family life, civil law, and public assistance in Paris, and reveals how citizens forged a wide variety of family forms in defiance of social, cultural, and legal norms. Gager bases her work on documents ranging from previously unexplored notarized contracts of adoption to court cases, theological treatises, and literary texts. She examines two main patterns of adoption: those privately arranged between households and those of destitute children from the Parisian foundling hospice and the Hôtel-Dieu. Gager argues that although customary law rejected adoption and promoted an exclusively biological model of the family, there existed an alternative domestic culture based on a variety of "fictive" ties. Gager connects her arguments to current debates about adoption and the nature of the family in Europe and the United States. Originally published in 1996. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.
