The Marburg Group
The Marburg Group is a group of German private international law scholars. Members of the working group were Christine Budzikiewicz (Marburg), Konrad Duden (Leipzig), Anatol Dutta (Munich), Tobias Helms (Marburg) and Claudia Mayer (Regensburg).
The Marburg Group’s comments on the Parenthood Proposal
A group of German private international law scholars reviewed the European Commission’s 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
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).
The Commission proposes for the area of parenthood common rules for the Member States 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). The Commission even suggests that authentic instruments with binding legal effects shall be recognised (Art. 35 et seq. PP).
The Marburg Group welcomes the initiative of the Commission. The Group embraces the overall structure of the Parenthood Proposal. Nevertheless, it suggests some fundamental changes, apart from technical amendments. The comprehensive comments can be downloaded here:
A revised version of the comments was published by Intersentia. An open
access version of the book is available here:
