The underlying idea Elena Bargelli and Ilaria Pretelli shared was on the need to focus on the areas of family law where no specific EU regulation has intervened so far to detect both the impact of cross-border cases on substantive family law and the degree of approximation of national laws.

The welcome addresses were given by Franz Werro and Christiane Wendehorst. The first session on ‘Legal Developments in the Recognition of Filiation’ was chaired by Jens Scherpe. A detailed report on the Surrogacy Project of the Hague Conference by Yuko Nishitani opened the session; Cristina González Beilfuss introduced and put into question the present dichotomy on parent-child relations, also in the light of the CJEU‘s Pancharevo judgement; in the same vein, Ilaria Pretelli concluded the session by sketching out the parallel lines of development of law and society in matters of filiation with reference to the 1989 CRC overarching rights to identity and to care of children.

The second session of the webinar was on ‘The Use of Private International Law by European and National Courts’ chaired by Andrea Büchler. The presentation on ‘Pathways in National Case Law after the ECHR Decisions on Surrogacy’ by Joaquin Bayo Delgado focused on the developments of Spanish case law on surrogacy. Concluding remarks were delivered by Susanne Gössl.

The webinar was followed by a lively Q&A discussion.

For the full programme see here.