The study’s purpose was to investigate how Family Law appraises the Children´s Rights Conventions principle "the best interests of the child" when assessing visitation in cases with domestic violence, moreover, how the approaches can impact the children. Four family law caseworkers were interviewed through a combined interview and vignette study. The empiricism was analysed with a thematic analysis. Results indicated that the interviewees take the child's best interests into account by acknowledging their opinions. The results showed an inherent problem with a family-oriented stance in investigations. The child's relationship with parents is highly valued, which can be against the child's best interests. Ultimately, violence was seen as a serious risk factor in visitation proceedings, this contributes to negative consequences on the child. Despite that the Convention now is law, the results showed contradictions regarding what the best interest of the child is, therefore continued research is needed on the issue. / Syftet med studien var att undersöka familjerättens förhållningssätt till Barnkonventionens grundprincip om barnets bästa vid bedömningar av umgänge i ärenden där det förekommer våld i hemmet, samt vad förhållningssätten kan innebära för barnet. Fyra familjerättssekreterare intervjuades genom en kombinerad intervju- och vinjettstudie. Empirin analyserades med en tematisk analys. Studiens bärande resultat visade på att familjerättssekreterarna beaktar barnets bästa genom att låta barnet få komma till tals. Resultatet fann även ett inneboende problem med ett familjeorienterat synsätt i umgängesutredningar. Det framkom att barnets relation till båda föräldrarna värnas högt vilket kan strida mot barnets bästa. Slutligen fann studien att våld utgör en allvarlig riskfaktor i umgängesutredningar och bidrar till negativa konsekvenser för barnet. Trots att Barnkonventionen är lag påvisade resultatet motstridigheter om vad barnets bästa innebär, och därför behövs fortsatt forskning i frågan.

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The present thesis explores intersectional and institutional conditions for counteracting domestic violence in the Swedish welfare state. Empirically, the study focuses on professional discourses and practices concerning fathers’ violence against mothers and children in the context of separation, in three domains of practice: 1) Children’s education; 2) Disputes concerning custody, contact and residence; and 3) Welfare benefits such as financial aid. Theoretically, the study draws on feminist political theory and sociology, childhood studies and critical race studies. The empirical material consists of court orders and interviews with staff and victimised mothers. Two main social processes that undermine implementation of children’s rights are identified and discussed: Familialisation and selective repression. The thesis is based on four articles: Article I, (Skolan, familjerätten och barnen) School, family law and children exposed to violence, explores how staff at school and preschool understands their professional task, when in encounters with children in difficulties due to family law proceedings. The results suggest that two competing perspectives shape staff understandings of risks, solutions and violence. When arguing from the child’s rights’ perspective, the staff prioritises children’s safety and participation, while an upbringing perspective tends to construct violence mainly as a problem of order, with disquieting implications for vulnerable children. Article II, (Pedagoger i det sociala uppdragets gränstrakter: Att hantera familjerättsliga processer, hot och våld)Pedagogues in the borderland of their social task: Dealing with family law proceedings, threats and violence, investigates strategies used by preschool and school staff, when encountering gendered conflicts and violence between parents. How do the staff cope with their own and children’s vulnerability? An analytical model of six types of proactive and reactive strategies, ranging from keeping distance to normalisation of own vulnerability, is utilised in the analysis and discussed in relation to organisational and professional circumstances and intersecting social relations of inequality. Article III, Contact and evaluations of violence: An intersectional analysis of Swedish court orders, examines obstacles to implementation of children’s rights in contested parental contact cases in which there are indications of violence. The analysis shows that the contact presumption is strong, and generally overrides protection. This norm applies even where there are convictions or explicit reports of child abuse or domestic violence. In cases with ‘non-Nordic’ fathers however, the contact presumption is less likely to override protection than in cases with ‘Nordic’ fathers. Article IV, Financial oppression and post-separation child positions in Sweden, deals with post-separation child positions in two domains of practice in the Swedish welfare state: Welfare benefits such as financial aid, and child contact. The area of concern is financial oppression in the context of parental separation. Findings suggest that financial abuse in the context of parental separation is a non-question in the domain of welfare benefits, and in the domain of child contact framed as a conflict between equal parties. The age order as a form of domination may be reinforced by the practice of both domains.

This thesis explores the ways in which Islamic law and human rights interact within the work of women’s rights non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that advocate the reform of the Egyptian Personal Status Law (PSL) in the period between 2006 and 2010. The thesis shows the relevance of the human rights framework as well as the flexibility of Islamic legal discourse in the work of the NGOs. Drawing on both Islamic law and human rights enabled NGOs to develop a more gender-sensitive religious discourse, which supported their PSL reform demands. However the interaction between these two frameworks was largely affected by several important factors, which sometimes led NGOs to dilute some of their demands. These factors included the implications of the change in the form of Shari‘a as codified law under the modern nation-state; the Egyptian political context both internally and externally; the common local perception that human rights are a Western production and an extension of Western colonialism; the dominant religious but patriarchal discourse governing the PSL; the implications of activism through the NGO structure; and the personal religiosity of individual activists. The thesis explores NGOs’ PSL reform demands in depth bearing in mind these factors. It investigates NGOs’ discourse and shows its strengths and weaknesses. It shows that the interaction between Islamic law and human rights within NGOs’ work in this particular Egyptian context produced reform demands that were innovative and practically appealing on one hand, but epistemologically problematic in some instances, on another.

This thesis examines the Indian system of personal laws (‘the PLS’), under which the state applies a version of religious doctrine to the family matters of citizens whom it identifies as belonging to different religious groups. There has been a lengthy and persistent debate over the PLS, particularly in relation to its discriminatory effects upon women. However, another problem with the PLS has been little commented-upon. Supporters of the PLS emphasise its positive impact on religious freedom to such an extent that there is a pervasive assumption that the PLS is, indeed, good for religious freedom. But there has been surprisingly little critical assessment of the truth of this claim in either academic or political debates. This thesis, a work of applied normative legal theory, attempts to fill this important gap in the literature on the PLS. The thesis addresses the question of how the PLS affects one conception of religious freedom, namely religious autonomy. Its principal findings are that the PLS interferes with the religious autonomy of those subject to it by affecting their religious options (by interfering with their freedom from religion and their freedom to practice religion) and by harming their self-respect (by discriminating on the grounds of sex and religion, and by misrecognising their religious identities). Furthermore, the thesis finds that the PLS cannot be defended in the name of religious autonomy based on the possibility of exit from the system, the advantage of having the ‘option of personal law’, the power it gives people to bind their future selves, the expressive potential of the personal laws, the contribution it makes to membership in a religious community, the contribution it makes to religious group autonomy, or the recognition or validation it provides for religious identities. These conclusions imply that concerns relating to religious autonomy constitute an important set of objections to the PLS. The thesis then considers several reform proposals, including certain modifications of the PLS, a move towards a millet system, ‘internal’ reform of individual personal laws and the introduction of a Uniform Civil Code. It particularly focusses on one reform possibility – religious alternative dispute resolution – which has not been considered closely in the Indian context.

Le droit de la famille constitue un sujet très sensible dans les pays musulmans et donne lieu à une controverse récurrente, principalement structurée autour des pôles islamique et féministe. C’est le cas au Sénégal et au Maroc où l’option retenue par le législateur - qui vise à renforcer les droits des femmes dans le cadre d’un texte cherchant à concilier impératifs islamiques et injonction à la modernité - est loin de faire l’unanimité. En prenant les débats sur le droit de la famille comme point de départ, ce travail se propose - à partir d’une analyse croisant action publique et sociologie politique du droit - de voir comment l’Etat cherche à réguler l’intime pour s’affirmer comme entreprise totale de domination dans un contexte marqué par un fort pluralisme normatif. La comparaison par contrastes dramatiques permet de centrer l’analyse sur le différentiel de capacité et de légitimité des Etats marocain et sénégalais pour mieux saisir le processus différencié d’institutionnalisation de l’Etat au sud. Dans les deux cas, l’Etat cherche à tirer avantage de la controverse en jouant sur les différents systèmes normatifs et en impliquant l’ensemble des acteurs qui le reconnaissent comme arbitre légitime, ce qui lui permet de conserver le pouvoir déterminant de la mise en forme juridique. Afin de pallier les difficultés d’application du droit, l’Etat s’appuie également sur les acteurs non étatiques pour le diffuser, ce qui confirme le caractère co-produit de la politique du droit de la famille. Si le droit étatique ne constitue pas la norme unique mais une norme mobilisable parmi d’autres, il contribue néanmoins à l’orientation des schèmes de perception et d’action des individus et renforce ainsi la prétention de l’Etat à constituer l’autorité politique ultime. / In Muslim countries, Family Law is a highly sensitive matter, which generates recurrent controversy, mainly polarised around Islamic and feminist positions. This is, for instance, what can be observed in Senegal and Morocco. In both countries, the legislator tried to mediate this tension by strengthening Women’s Rights within a text that conciliates Islamic imperatives and injunction to modernity. But this solution is far from receiving unanimous support.Taking the Family Law debate as a starting point, this work combines public policy studies and political sociology of law to analyse how the State tries to regulate the intimate sphere in order to be viewed as the sole domination apparatus within a context of strong normative pluralism. The comparison between the Moroccan and the Senegalese States - a comparison based on ‘dramatic contrasts’- allows to focus the analysis on the differences between the Morocco and Senegalese states in terms of capacity and legitimacy, and thus helps us in better understanding the specificity of state-institutionalisation processes in developing countries.In both cases, the State tries to take advantage from the controversy. It plays on the different normative systems and involves all the actors who acknowledge it as the legitimate arbitrator in order to keep and consolidate its power of law framing. Furthermore, in order to overcome the difficulties linked to law enforcement, the State relies on non-state actors to apply the law. This evidences and confirms the fact that Family Law is the result of a process of co-production. Even if State jurisprudence does not constitute the only normative order, but one amongst others, it nevertheless importantly influences individual behaviour on both the cognitive and the experiential levels. It thus reinforces the State’s pretention to constitute the ultimate political authority.

Private international law from a comparative perspective(comparison of a particular segment in Czech law and the law of a selected country) This thesis works with a comparison of conflict rules in the field of international family law in the Czech Republic and in the Federal Republic of Germany. It is focused concretely on questions of marriage, register partnership and adoption, in which is included an international element. The topic has been taken into account in addition to the national rules of international private law also rules at international and European level. Includes is also future progress in this field. Thesis is divided into eight chapters. The introduction is followed by first chapter, which deals with general classification of international family law as a part of international private law and their definition. Following chapter is focused on conflict rules, determingfactores which may be used to determine the applicable law. Included are terms as public policy, remise or transmise. Chapter three is about general definition of court's jurisdiction to hear the dispute with an international element. Fourth chapter is devoted to marriage, included are sources of legal regulation, jurisdiction of courts in matrimonial matters and comparison of conflict rules in the case of...

A thesis deals with perception of the value of marriage and of the status of divorced person in Czech and German society. Student observes in her research supposed trend of deviation from the traditional value of marriage by current young generation - potential parents. With this is connected also a supposed change in attitude for divorce. Aim of the theses is to compare that attitude by Czech and German generation. For the final results were used available sources in Czech and German language, which are dealing with this topic and also a method of quality research - unstandardized interviews with people born in 70s and 80s in the area of Czech republic and Germany.

This thesis is a theoretical study that characterizes shared childcare after divorce as the most suitable post-divorce arrangement. This assumption is based on developmental changes in the European family from the time of the French Revolution, the development of family law and important aspects of family law, as well as on the needs of children, and definitions of maternal and paternal love. This hypothesis is also supported by the results of foreign research, which compares the lives of children in different post-divorce arrangements. The following paper discusses mediation as an appropriate way of helping parents achieve a solution that is suitable for all participants in the dispute. In the conclusion some case studies are presented.

Esta tese analisa a questão da legitimidade das relações de família que se deslocou do direito positivo para a esfera judicial. Por conseguinte, sob o ângulo da justiça, esse deslocamento possibilitou contemplar alguns dos aspectos da fissura social brasileira que separa os ricos dos pobres, na medida em que a lei passou a reconhecer novas formas de família além daquela constituída pelo casamento civil. Atualmente, a questão social do direito de família revela-se num contexto de reforma do Poder Judiciário, no qual se procura buscar soluções para que as barreiras sociais, econômicas e culturais que impedem o acesso ao direito e à justiça sejam superadas. Logo, neste estudo, impõe-se a questão geral de compreender como públicos distintos percebem seus direitos, procuram exercer sua cidadania e como suas demandas são apresentadas ao Estado. As análises desenvolvidas nesta tese seguem a teoria weberiana do direito e têm por objetivo estudar as diferentes sistematizações legais e as diferentes representações de uma ordem legítima a fim de se verificar como o conjunto de normas de direito se repercute nas condutas sociais. Nesse sentido, examina-se o processo histórico de codificação civil e as transformações do direito de família brasileiro, cujos reflexos são observados a partir da organização da justiça no município de São Paulo (2000-2005). Conclui-se que as demanda de família apresentadas à justiça, na forma de processos judiciais, dependem do perfil socioeconômico dos litigantes: quanto mais baixo o nível socioeconômico, menores são as chances de ingresso nos tribunais. Nesse cenário, as informações a respeito das formas de conjugalidade e do estado civil, bem como os dados referentes aos processos de separação, divórcio, guarda de menores e alimentos, são indicadores da desigualdade de acesso ao direito e à justiça no Brasil. / This thesis analyses the question of legitimacy in family relationships and its relation to judicial proceedings. This question reveals the Brazilian social inequality that became evident when the family law recognized new manners of family constitution other than that based on civil marriage. At present, the question of family law displays in a judiciary transformation context in that new solutions are necessary to overcome the social, economical and cultural barriers that block the access to justice. Therefore, the main purpose of this study is to understand how people of different social origins realize their rights, exercise their citizenships and have their expectancies treated by the State. This analysis follows the Weberian theory of law whose objective is to study the different law systematizations and the different representations of the legitimacy in a certain order to verify how the law affects the social order. In this regard, the thesis considers the history of the civil codification and the transformation of the family law, whose consequences have been examined through the justice organization at São Paulo city (2000-2005). In conclusion, the study reveals that the nature of the family claims depends on the claimers socioeconomic status: the less the socioeconomic status, the less are the opportunities to reach the courts. In this context, the information about conjugality and civil status, as well as the information about decisions on divorce, legal separation, custody and alimonies, are indicators about the inequality of access to justice in Brazil.