Chapter 7 - Maturity of the Child

Summary

‘As children mature and, with the passage of time, become able to formulate their own opinion, the court should give due weight also to their views and feelings …’

– ECtHR, Petrov and X v. Russia

Introduction

As the fountain of youth remains a myth, every person on the planet grows older with the passage of time. Someone’s age cannot be halted; the passing days add up to months and years. Adults grow old and children grow up. Growing up is the process through which children gradually achieve physical and mental maturity. As the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) eloquently phrased it in the quote above, as children mature, they become able to formulate their own opinions and, in family law proceedings, the courts should give due weight to their views and opinions. In the previous two chapters on (in)sufficient participation and the weight granted to children’s views, the child’s maturity has surfaced as a relevant factor. The importance of the child’s maturity also stems from the fact that it is the most common condition applied in international law and domestic law for child participation. It was therefore included in the coding framework for this analysis and rightfully so, as it is a common point of discussion in the case law studied.

In this chapter, the maturity of the child will be discussed both in relation to participation as well as for the weight to be attached to the child’s views. As shown in Figure 4.1 in Chapter 4, the theme of maturity overlaps with these two central themes. Whereas in Chapters 5 and 6 the focus was on the (in) sufficient participation and the weight accorded to a child’s views respectively, in this chapter the focus is on how the child’s maturity is considered as such, and how it functions as a factor in participation and due weight. In that sense, while some of the case law discussed has been included in the preceding chapters, this chapter also includes other case law and draws new conclusions and inferences.