Family

Personal status and family affairs

This research field deals with personal status and family affairs. Given that secular systems still contains religiously based institutions (e.g. the definition of «marriage»), it is not surprising that issues that call into question family models are under debate and give rise to lively polemics between religious and secular groups in several European countries.

It includes the issue of religious marriages and divorces, as well as custody over children and the adoption of children when religious and formal legal prescriptions clash. The institution by some communities of parallel dispute settlement bodies to deal with family-related disputes is also investigated.