The Convention on the Rights of the Child and the EU Judicial Cooperation in Civil Matters

The paper deals with the impact of the 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child on the judicial cooperation in civil matters established by the European Union. After assessing the position of the Convention in the EU legal system and its interaction with EU law and with the case-law of the Court of Justice of the European Union, the paper focuses on the role played by the principles and by the notions enshrined in the Convention in the field of private international law. The paper makes the point that protection of children’s fundamental rights is largely taken into account in existing instru- ments related to judicial cooperation in civil matters and that there is a general convergence between the main principles of the Convention and the approach of EU private international law in children- related matters. However, the paper also underlines that different techniques may serve the purpose of accommodating the need to protect children’s rights in the context of judicial cooperation in civil matters.