Something old, something new, something international and something askew

Abstract

It has been a rather uneventful year in Dutch family law. There have been new developments, but nothing on a large scale. Nevertheless, it is interesting to provide a short overview of the important case law and (proposed) legislative changes relating to family law. New legislative proposals were introduced in the Dutch Parliament, including a Bill to vest both female spouses ex lege with parentage rights over any child conceived with the sperm of an unknown donor born during their marriage, and old legislative proposals were finally adopted, including a Bill relating to the rights and responsibility of spouses regarding their marital property. At the international level the international recovery of maintenance has undergone enormous changes, with three new instruments having been drafted in the past few years. Two of these new instruments, the European Maintenance Regulation and the Hague Maintenance Protocol entered into force in the Netherlands on the 18th June 2011. In this contribution, the major changes for Dutch law will be reviewed. Furthermore, the European Court of Human Rights held that the Dutch Supreme Court had not been efficient when hearing a case brought by a minor who had been placed in a confined institution on a custodial placement. This led to an immediate change in the Supreme Court approach to this issue. This contribution will, therefore, review some of these judicial and legislative developments providing a brief overview of the major changes to Dutch family law. The Amsterdam Stories by Nescio (1882-1961) one of the treasures of Dutch literature, which has finally been translated into English is a perhaps the best example of something old, new, and something quite possibly askew.