Council Regulation (EC) No 2201/2003 – Mechanism of Modernisation for National Legislations in the Field of Family Relationships

The European Union has turned its sights to family law. Brussels now tells us where we can raise proceedings in family cases. The European Union has brought together in a single legal instrument the provisions on divorce and parental responsibility, with a view to facilitating the work of judges and legal practitioners and to regulating the exercise of cross-border rights of access. This regulation represents a major step forward in the fight against violation of the right to privacy and family life. It establishes a full system of rules on jurisdiction. Many European states still have a limited regulation of the reasons for getting the dissolution of marriage. The European Convention (regulate the right to family and private life and, respectively, the right to marriage in art. 8 and 12 ECHR) has nothing to do with such cases because does not regulates the right to divorce and it would be an interference into the national law. In this paper we intend to find out what changes bring the regulation into national legislation and that raises many questions: How can a person be married again if he/she doesn’t have the possibility to divorce? In these conditions, can we take the European Convention into consideration as a real instrument of protection for the right to marriage? What the regulation means and what are the legal effects which it produces its application in the Member State legislation?