6 - The emergence of a European Union family law

Summary

In 2000, the European Union adopted its first measure in the field of family law. This was an historic moment. The European Union had crossed the Rubicon: a legal measure had been adopted in a field of law so precious to individuals, families, politicians and so significant in terms of national power and sovereignty. Yet there was no fanfare, nor public protest. Indeed, hardly anyone knew this had happened, even family lawyers. This probably remains the case, even amongst scholars of European Union law. Why? This was because Regulation 1347/2000 on the recognition and enforcement of judgments in matrimonial matters had been adopted as part of a raft of measures designed to facilitate ‘judicial co-operation’ between states in an effort to create an ‘area of freedom, justice and security’. It sounds as anodyne as it was portrayed. While the focus – the fanfares and the protests – are on the immigration and asylum measures of the area of freedom, justice and security, the supposedly more technical field of judicial co-operation gets little attention. This is a terrible error.

The adoption of the Regulation, known as Brussels II, was only the first of a number of family law measures, and for some it represents the first step towards a harmonised or even unified family law for the member states of the European Union.