‘It Isn’t Over’: A Comparative Analysis of European Approaches on Extending Stepchild Adoption to the Parent’s Former Partner

The chapter focuses on an emerging trend in European family law: enabling a parent’s former partner to adopt their stepchild following the breakdown of the couple’s relationship, even if the adoptee has already reached majority. It focuses on selected European jurisdictions to examine: a) under which conditions national laws allow de facto step-parents to get parental status following the dissolution of their affective relationship with the legal parent of the child, either because of death or separation; b) whether the child becomes a shared child of the former partners or which effects are connected to the type of adoption that is granted; and c) whether these options are expressly regulated by the law or if they are allowed by case law. Considering the importance that concrete affective ties has assumed in international law, particularly in the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights, this study also provides an analysis of the usage of adult adoption to the aforementioned purposes, to offer a comparative overview of the European models on stepchild adoption by the parent’s former partner, regardless of the adoptee’s age.