Recueil Des Cours, Collected Courses, Tome 412
Description:... Read the interview with Anastasia Grammaticaki-Alexiou on Best Interests of the Child in Private International Law (in English) / (in French)
La hiérarchisation de l'ordre juridique international, cours général de droit international public, par D. MOMTAZ, professeur à l'Université de Téhéran
L'ordre juridique international s'est longtemps distingué par l'équivalence de ses normes. Mais l'introduction de l'impérativité en droit positif porte en germe leur hiérarchisation substantielle. Confinée dans un premier temps au droit des traités, cette hiérarchisation tend progressivement à devenir un vecteur de l'évolution de la structure de l'ordre international par la voie non conventionnelle. Cette tendance est confirmée par l'accueil favorable de certains organes internationaux à l'égard des dispositions novatrices empreintes de vision communautaire des projets d'articles de la Commission du droit international. Néanmoins, sa consolidation et surtout sa généralisation au sein de la communauté internationale des Etats dans son ensemble restent semées d'embûches.
Best Interests of the Child in Private International Law, by A. GRAMMATICAKI-ALEXIOU, Professor Emerita at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
Private international law has opened up to concepts that originally seemed remote to its philosophy of neutrality. In matters relating to international family law, human rights have enriched its rules and solutions via the principle of the best interests of the child, as introduced by the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child. The study seeks to highlight the importance of the principle in present "hot" and difficult issues, such as international child abduction, intercountry adoption, international surrogacy, and personal status problems of migrant and refugee children, where it is expected to play an important role. The principle is a valuable tool for the protection of the child, provided it is interpreted and applied correctly. But, as it happens with other general concepts in law, its interpretation and application in specific cases may be influenced by cultural, religious or other personal beliefs of the legal practitioner or state official who applies it, or sometimes be given only lip service. The task of objectivity is difficult. And yet, notwithstanding possible errors, the best-interests of the child principle offers solutions that are the most protective of the rights of the child.
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