The Influence of Marriage Registration on Exercising Parental Rights and Performing Parental Duties

Abstract

Review. The article disproves an opinion that is widespread in the science of family law that the legal status of the parents does not depend on whether they have registered their marriage, and if parents are not married to each other this does not affect the rights of the child. The author analyses the peculiarities of legal regulation of relations when the marriage between the parents is either registered or not registered, as well as other correlations with the fact of marriage registration. The author enumerates and summarizes the differences in the grounds for acquiring a legal status of a parent, peculiarities of exercising parental rights and performing parental duties. The author justifies the opinion that it is necessary to change a prevailing approach to understanding the ground for parental relationships. The author highlights advantages and disadvantages of the existing procedure of registration of parental rights and the birth of the child including assisted reproductive technologies. The paper defines the meaning of the fact of the marriage registration in determining the legal status of underage parents and applying specific rules with regard to the participation of underage parents in the upbringing of children. The author examines effective and broken legislative rules in the sphere of protection of the interests of children and parents upon termination by the parents their matrimonial relations. Particular attention is paid to the problems of enforcement of parental duty to provide maintenance to a child in the context of the conflict of interests of a child and a spouse of a parent who is not his or her second parent. The paper demonstrates the points of intersection in legal regulation if the payer of maintenance or alimony is acting in two specific family law statuses - namely, as a parent and a spouse. As a result, the author concludes that it is necessary to strengthen the legal status of children born out of wedlock and their parents. The author proposes directions of scientific research aimed at achieving the balance in protecting the interests of the participants of parental relations, as well as recommendations for improving enforcement practices and reforming family law in the sphere of protection of the rights of parents and children including laws on child maintenance.