Recognition of LGBTQI+ parent families across European borders
| Author | Lydia Bracken |
| Published date | 01 June 2022 |
| Date | 01 June 2022 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/1023263X221098050 |
Recognition of LGBTQI+parent
families across European
borders
Lydia Bracken *
Abstract
The legal recognition of LGBTQI+parent families differs considerably across Europe and is a mat-
ter that is largely outside of the remit of EU law. This creates difficulties for LGBTQI+parent
families who cross European borders as legal parent-child relationships established in one
Member State may not be recognized in another, resulting in limping legal parentage. In the
case of V.M.A. v. Stolichna obshtina, the CJEU found that where one EU Member State recognizes
the legal parentage of same-sex parents, all other EU Member States must also recognize those
parent-child relationships for the purpose of free movement. This article examines the significance
and limitations of the decision.
Keywords
LGBTQI+parenthood, family law, children’s rights
1. Introduction
Under EU law, Member States have exclusive competence in the fields of nationality as well as
family law. Thus, the legal recognition of parent-child relationships is a matter for the discretion
of individual States, with the result that the legal recognition of LGBTQI+parent families varies
senting certain public documents in the EU, it ‘does not apply to the recognition in a Member State
of legal effects relating to the content of public documents issued by the authorities of another
*
University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland
Corresponding author:
Lydia Bracken, Senior Lecturer in Law, University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland.
Email: lydia.bracken@ul.ie
Case Note
Maastricht Journal of European and
Comparative Law
2022, Vol. 29(3) 399–406
© The Author(s) 2022
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/1023263X221098050
maastrichtjournal.sagepub.com
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