RabelsZ issue devoted to family law topics
How has family law changed as a result of its encounters with transnational fact patterns, civil status registration systems, the digital age, and war? The first issue of the Rabel Journal of Comparative and International Private Law of 2025 is dedicated to addressing several examples of these transformations. It assembles papers delivered at the “Familienrechtliche Paradigmen” (paradigms of family law) symposium, which was held as part of the annual meeting of the Alumni Association of the Hamburg Max Planck Institute in June 2024, along with other writings and reviews on family law matters.
The contributions are thematically connected in more than one way. Not only do they analyse the leading assumptions of both the substantive and conflict of laws elements of family law, but they also examine the ways in which family law is changing. Director at the Institute Anne Röthel examines the power of the legal ideals of modernity in European family law. Johanna Croon-Gestefeld, professor of civil law and transnational private law at Leuphana Law School, examines family law’s sensitivity to the emergence of transnational structures. Anatol Dutta, chair of civil law, private international law, and comparative law at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, deals with how changes in the law of family status affect the practical implementation of the law of personal status. Katharina Kaesling, junior professor of civil law, intellectual property (especially patents) and legal issues surrounding AI at the Technological University of Dresden, looks at how the digital age are transforming the concept of the parent-child relationship in the context of the European single market. Iryna Dikovska, professor at the Department of Civil Law at Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv and senior research fellow at the Institute, writes about how the legal concept of child abduction has adjusted to wartime circumstances.
The Rabel Journal of Comparative and International Private Law, Volume 89 (2025) / Issue 1
Image: © Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law / Bastian Kurzynsky
