EUROPSKA UNIJA I OBITELJSKO PRAVO MEĐUNARODNOPRIVATNOPRAVNI, PROCESNOPRAVNI I MATERIJALNOPRAVNI ASPEKTI

Abstract

By encouraging the free market and ensuring the free movement of people (not only of goods, capital and services), the European Union has in fact contributed to the more frequent starting of families with an international element, which has simultaneously brought about more disputes initiated as a consequence of the termination of such family unions through divorce. For that reason, the European Union bodies are becoming more active in regulating different aspects of the European family law. Even though the above-mentioned activities are justified and welcome in the areas of international private and procedural law, the same cannot be said of the area of substantive family law. Because of existing concerns regarding the legitimacy of legislative activities of the European Union bodies in the area of substantive family law, the viewpoints of adversaries and advocates of the European Union bodies interventions in the area of substantive family law are analysed in detail. Finally, through the interpretation of corresponding provisions of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and the Treaty on European Union, the authors conclude that the area of substantive family law is not under the competence of the European Union, but the nation states, since the appropriate authority has not been delegated to the Union in this area. The above-mentioned standpoint currently represents a communis opinio in the European legal literature.