TFL Vsebine / Pravni letopis

The child’s habitual residence is becoming one of the most important jurisdictional criteria in the area of private international family law. Its adoption as the primary basis of jurisdiction under the Brussels II bis Regulation, confirms its significance. However, even after one hundred years of its first use in the substantive law of the Hague Convention on Guardianship of 1902, two outstanding issues remain. The criterion is still considered a factual concept and, as a consequence, most of the legal sources that deal with private international law have not provided its definition. In recent years, following the “A” case of 2009, this position has changed because the European Court of Justice stressed that “…it follows from the need for uniform application of Community law and from the principle of equality that the terms of a provision of Community law which makes no express reference to the law of the Member States for the purpose of determining its meaning and scope must normally be given an autonomous and uniform interpretation throughout the European Community”. In another case, Rinau, it was affirmed that the guiding principles of the 1980 Hague Convention concerning the interests of children were taken over, in matrimonial matters and matters of parental responsibility, by the Regulation. Advocate General Kokott held in her opinion in the “A” case that “[b]oth provisions pursue the aim that abducted children should return immediately to the State in which they had their habitual residence before the unlawful removal. That coordination also makes a uniform understanding of the concept of habitual residence necessary”. The article analyses the practice of the Hague Conference of Private International Law and tries to give an insight into the thirty years of implementation of the 1980 Child Abduction Convention and the 1996 Child Protection Convention, and the problems that have emerged from it. This will help in creating a uniform application of this jurisdictional criterion and a uniform understanding of the concept of habitual residence. The article also gives comparative insight into the recent emergence of definitions of the habitual residence in the national codifications of the private international law.

Običajno prebivališče otroka postaja eno glavnih meril za določitev pristojnosti na področju mednarodnega zasebnega družinskega prava. Sprejem tega merila kot temelja pristojnosti po uredbi Bruselj II bis potrjuje njegov pomen. Vendar pa tudi po sto letih od njegove prve uporabe v materialnem pravu Haaške konvencije o skrbništvu iz leta 1902, ostajata odprti dve vprašanji. Merilo se še vedno obravnava kot dejanski koncept in posledično večina pravnih virov, ki se ukvarjajo z zasebnim mednarodnim pravom, ne določa njegove opredelitve. V zadnjih letih, po primeru »A« iz leta 2009, se ta položaj spreminja, ker je Sodišče EU poudarilo, da »je iz zahtev po enotni uporabi prava Skupnosti in iz načela enakosti razvidno, da je treba izraze določbe prava Skupnosti, ki se pri opredelitvi smisla in obsega ne sklicuje posebej na pravo držav članic, navadno razlagati samostojno in enotno v celotni Skupnosti«. V primeru Rinau pa je Sodišče potrdilo, da je bila usmeritev Haaške konvencije iz leta 1980 glede koristi otroka v zakonskih sporih in sporih v zvezi s starševsko odgovornostjo povzeta v Uredbi. Generalna pravobranilka Kokottova je v svojem mnenju v zadevi »A« menila, da se »[z] obema predpisoma […] zasleduje cilj, da se ugrabljeni otroci nemudoma vrnejo v državo, v kateri so imeli običajno prebivališče pred protipravnim dejanjem. To povezovanje prav tako zahteva enotno razumevanje pojma običajnega prebivališča.« Članek analizira prakso Haaške konference o mednarodnem zasebnem pravu in skuša prikazati trideset let uveljavljanja Konvencije o mednarodni ugrabitvi otrok iz leta 1980 in Konvencije o varstvu otrok iz leta 1996 ter probleme, ki so pri tem nastali. To bo pripomoglo k enotni uporabi tega merila pristojnosti in enotnemu razumevanju koncepta običajnega prebivališča. Članek vsebuje tudi primerjalni pregled nedavnega pojava opredelitev običajnega prebivališča v nacionalnih zakonodaja s področja mednarodnega zasebnega prava.

Ugotavljanje otrokovega običajnega prebivališča po Bruseljski uredbi II bis