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Birth relationships after adoption - is there a role for Article 8?

Date:4 JUL 2019

Sarah Hansen, PhD candidate, Queen’s University Belfast

Keywords: Article 8 – post-adoption – contact – birth parents – adoption – siblings

The full version of this article will appear in Child and Family Law Quarterly, Vol 31, No 3.

Find out more or request a free 1-week trial of Child and Family Law Quarterly. Please quote: 100482.

The movement towards open adoption from public care in the UK has been emerging from research with patchy application in practice. The possibility of continued relationships between birth relatives and adopted children, in particular between siblings, gives cause to consider the implications of those relationships in the legal framework, in particular in relation to rights under the European Convention on Human Rights. This article considers the existing jurisprudence both domestic and European on the engagement of Article 8 and argues that further consideration is required of its possible engagement post-adoption.

This article has been accepted for publication in Child and Family Law Quarterly in Issue 3, Vol 31, Year 2019. The final published version of this article will be published and made publicly available here 24 months after its publication date, under a CC-BY-NC licence.