European Convention on Human Rights

• Art 8 Everyone has the right to respect for his private and family life . . . No interference except . . . national security, public safety, economic wellbeing, prevention of disorder, crime, protection of health and morals, protection of rights and freedom of otheres

ECHR

• Art 12 Men and women of marriageable age have the right to marry and found a family, according to the national laws governing the exercise of that right

ECHR

• Art 14 Rights and freedoms shall be secured without discrimination on any ground such as sex, race, colour, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, association with a national minority, property, birth or other status

Gavin Mellor failed

• R v Secretary of State for the Home Dept ex p Mellor [2001 Human Rights Law Reports 38

• Met wife in prison service; 31 on release date

• Art 12 breach?

Kirk Dickson

• Sought AI in prison• Dickson v UK Grand

Chamber of European Court of Human Rights 44362/04

• Prisoners retain all rights that are not expressly removed

Parenthood supreme

• Yigal Amir assassinated Yitzhak Rabin and was sentenced to life in prison in 1996

• Larissa Trimbobler left her husband for him and they were married by proxy

Amir’s baby

• Son born October 2007 after conjugal visits in jail were granted

• Cf English law but Kirk Dickson finally won right from European Court of Human Rights to AI with wife aged 49

Welfare of the child

• HFEA 1990 s.13(5) “A woman shall not be provided with treatment services unless account has been taken of the welfare of any child who may be born as a result of the treatment (including the need of that child for a father) . . .”

• HFEA 2008 s.14(2)(b) “For ‘a father’ substitute ‘supportive parenting’”

Babies need fathers

• Government policy

• Divorce rate

• Contact

• Child support

• Birth registration

• Paternity leave

• Removal of donor anonymity

UN Convention on the Rights of the Child 1990

• Art. 7 “The child shall be registered immediately after birth and shall have the right from birth to a name, the right to acquire a nationality and, as far as possible, the right to know and be cared for by his or her parents.”

Advantages of fathers

• Complementary roles

• Shared responsibility

• Two sets of relatives

• Two sets of life experiences

• Greater stability

Fathers’ influence

• According to the NSPCC there is a positive correlation with

• education

• behaviour

• relationship forming

• confidence

• Mental health

COUPLES AND THE LAW 2009-10

• Divorce 15 September

• Maintenance 13 October

• Cohabitation 17 November

• Civil partnerships 2 February

• Family members 16 March

• Cousin marriage 23 March

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