D9.8 Article on geographies of families in the European Union: a legal and social policy analysis

This deliverable (9.8) is an article submitted to the International Journal of Law, Policy and the Family (Oxford Journals) which analyses the notion of family in the EU and family reproductive rights in a group of EU member states with different legal, cultural and social backgrounds (Italy, Spain, Denmark, the Netherlands, Croatia and Hungary). The article combines a sociological and legal approach and is based on a questionnaire completed by the partners involved in the task (see Annex I).

The social and legal changes in the geographies of families in Member States encourage the European Union to reconsider its traditionally prudent approach to family law. Indeed, the free movement of people, an essential characteristic of European citizenship, requires legally established family statuses to be ‘portable’ abroad. Similarly, marriage and reproductive mobility arising from the variety of national regulations force domestic legislatures and courts to challenge the definitions of family found in domestic law and social policy in the name of the right to family life and the principle of non-discrimination. Thus, this article starts by discussing the various notions of family that emerge from national laws and social policies in six EU member states with different legal, cultural and social backgrounds (Italy, Spain, Denmark, the Netherlands, Croatia and Hungary). It then delineates the role of Europe and the social and legal interactions between Member States in the construction of a definition of family. Finally, it concentrates on cross-border reproductive care, a case study that allows for shedding light on the convergences among countries, as well as the role of Europe as a supra-national institution and as a space in which family models circulate and spread. The main conclusion is that a multilevel analysis of the notion of family shows the circularity of interactions top-down and bottom-up between Europe and individual States, as well between society and law.