International Family Law

2021/2022

Academic Year

ENG

Instruction in English

6

ECTS credits

Delivered by:

School of Legal Regulation of Business

Type:

Elective course

When:

3 year, 4 module

Instructor

Khazova, Olga

Course Syllabus

Abstract

Family law, once a stable area, has turned into a rapidly developing and thus becoming one of the most interesting and dynamic areas of law. To a significant extent it is connected with the shift in family forms we observed during recent time, and developments in reproductive medicine that allowed, in particular, to split genetic and social parentage. Along with these serious challenges to traditional family law ideas, globalization and migration processes, in turn, have brought another set of challenges for those working in family law at both national and international levels. Cross-border family disputes are increasingly becoming an every-day reality for practicing lawyers, not to mention the topics for numerous academic legal studies. Therefore, to be a specialist in this field nowadays it is not enough just to know one’s own national family law. The scales of changes make specialists in family law, both academics and practitioners, pay substantial attention to foreign legal regulation and international family law instruments.

Learning Objectives

• The aim of the course is to provide students with a theoretical and practical understanding of contemporary family law frameworks, identify the most important trends in development of national and international family law, and explain the key provisions of the main international instruments that form the standards of family and child law. Especial attention is paid to the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child, Article 8 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, the Hague Children’s Conventions, as well as some EU regulations and other international instruments related to family law.

Expected Learning Outcomes

• Students should gain the following competences: • ability to work with information (search, evaluate, use information, necessary for fulfilment of academic and professional tasks, from various sources, including application of the systematic approach); • ability to carry out professional activities in the international environment; • ability to search, analyse, and work with legally relevant information by using the juridical, comparative and other specific methods,
• Skills and abilities: • skills to use specific international family law terms and to apply and interpret the international instruments in the family law area; • practical abilities to research and conduct analysis of the international instruments (such as UNCRC, ECHR, the HCCH Conventions and EU regulations) and academic works in the area of international family law;
• Students must gain knowledge on: • the main international family law standards under the UNCRC, ECHR and the Hague Children’s Conventions; • the main trends in development of national and international family law; • the main approaches to drafting family law agreements with foreign element.

Course Contents

• The ‘Internationalization’ of family law. Marriage and extra-marital cohabitation in comparative and cross-border contexts
• Divorce in comparative and cross-border contexts
• Property relations between spouses: a comparative overview of national regulation
• Divorce and division of property in a cross-border context
• Child and the Family
• Disputes over children: cross-border aspects
• Child removal from the family. Inter-country adoption

Assessment Elements

• Attendance, active participation and online-discussion
• Test
• Written exam
  Экзамен проводится в письменной форме в Zoom. Во время экзамена студентам запрещено: общаться (в социальных сетях, с людьми в комнате), списывать. Во время экзамена студентам разрешено: пользоваться собственными конспектами.

Interim Assessment

• 2021/2022 4th module
  0.2 * Test + 0.6 * Written exam + 0.2 * Attendance, active participation and online-discussion

Bibliography

Recommended Core Bibliography

• Buck, T. (2014). International Child Law (Vol. 3rd ed). London: Routledge. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=800772
• Scherpe, J. M. (2016). European Family Law : Family Law in a European Perspective. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=1164420
• Wadlington, W., O’Brien, R. C., & Wilson, R. F. (2018). Family Law in Perspective (Vol. Fourth edition). St. Paul, MN: Foundation Press. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=1815470

Recommended Additional Bibliography

• Atkin, B. (2019). Family Law —— Solidarity or Disarray? Victoria University of Wellington Law Review, 50(2), 369–385. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=asn&AN=139246174
• Bumbaca, V. (2018). Habitual residence in International family law. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsbas&AN=edsbas.10D0389B
• FRA — European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights. (2015). Handbook on European law relating to the rights of the child. https://doi.org/10.2811/24
• Васильевна, А. Д., & Владимировна, Д. Н. (2019). Семейно-правовая ответственность как самостоятельный вид юридической ответственности. Concept / Koncept, (3), 1–6. https://doi.org/10.24411/2304-120X-2019-13014
• Кateryna Bondareva. (2018). Current Issues on the International Family Law. Міжнародні Відносини: Теоретико-Практичні Аспекти, (2), 148. https://doi.org/10.31866/2616-745x.2.2018.133344
• Семейное право : учебник / Б.М. Гонгало, П.В. Крашенинников, Л.Ю. Михеева, О.А. Рузакова ; под ред. П.В. Крашенинникова. — 4-е изд., перераб. и доп. — Москва : Статут, 2019. — 318с. - ISBN 978-5-907139-04-6. - Режим доступа: https://new.znanium.com/catalog/product/1053996 - Текст : электронный. - URL: http://znanium.com/catalog/product/1053996