We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 31 January 2019
INTRODUCTION
Ideas of equality between family members have received strong support in Norway, equality between children born in and out of wedlock, between husband and wife and between fathers and mothers. In recent years, fathers have strengthened their position in child law and same-sex couples have attained equality in marriage law. At the same time, child law has become an arena for political disputes, often pitting mothers ‘rights against the rights of fathers and biological parenthood against social parenthood (section 2). Marriage law, on the other hand, has seldom been at the centre of political debate, with the exception of equal rights for same-sex couples. Recent changes have concerned the legal age of marriage and wedding ceremonies (section 3).
RECENT REFORMS IN CHILD LAW
Norwegian child law has experienced frequent legislative amendments in the last decade. An important goal of the latest legislative changes in 2016 and 2017 has been to ensure the rights of fathers with regard to paternity, parental responsibility, custody and access. Another purpose has been to safeguard children's rights in areas where they look good on paper, but where reality tells a different story.
CONTESTATION OF PATERNITY
Paternity rules have been the subject of several amendments in the last decades, and new provisions allowing legal action on paternity were introduced in 2016.
The husband of the mother is automatically established as a child's father. If the mother is unmarried at the time of the child's birth, paternity is determined either by the father's declaration or by court judgment. Declaration by a father is only valid with the consent of the child's mother. In cases where the child does not have a legal father in accordance with these provisions, the authorities are responsible for establishing paternity. The authorities may require that the mother, the child and the man or men who may be the father of the child shall provide suitable samples for DNA analysis.
Between 2005 and 2013, cohabiting fathers were allowed to register paternity without the consent of the child's mother.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.
