Courses description:

1) Child in private international and procedural law 

Course deals with various aspects of legal protection of a child in private international and procedural law. Cross-border matters that are covered:

1. Legal status and representation of a child in cross-border civil matters,
2. Cross-border custody matters,
3. Cross-border maintenance obligations,
4. Cross-border family name,
5. Cross-border inheritance,
6. International adoption,
7. International surrogacy agreements.

2) Cross-border custody and child maintenance

Course would deal in particular with legal regimes on parental responsibility matters and maintenance obligations.

Parental responsibility within Regulation 2201/2003

• Scope of the term (institutional care, measures related to property – inheritance consent, link to some administrative procedures)
• Defining habitual residence of a child
• Criteria for jurisdiction
• Criteria for recognition and enforcement
• Cooperation through central authority in parental responsibility matters

Maintenance obligations

• Scope of the term
• Criteria for jurisdiction
• Criteria for recognition and enforcement
• Cooperation through central authority

Other

• Qualification (distinction to other matters, egz. inheritance matters)
• Public policy

3) CJEU and ECHR case law on cross-border family movement

Cross-border family movement entails numerous legal sources, which are  supplemented by court rulings. Case law of CJEU and ECHR serves to provide uniform interpretation and application. Content of a course:

1. CJEU Rulings to child protection and cross-border child movement
   • Right to education and social and educational benefits, rights of residence.
   • Civil aspects of cross-border child movement – CJEU rulings on Regulation 2201/2003 and 4/2009.
   • Breach of European Convention on Human rights, Charter of fundamental rights, UN Convention on the rights of a child inspected by the CJEU

2. EHCR Rulings to child protection and cross-border child movement
   • Potential breach of art. 8 ECHR, art. 14 and art. 6.
   • Rulings relating to custody, child abduction, surrogacy, adoption, family name and identity, same sex couples, transgender persons.

4) EU child abduction scheme (within and outside EU)

Forefront of the course is in the civil aspects of international child abduction. Topics covered are:

1. Internationally adopted scheme – introductory
   • Hague Child Abduction of 1980
   • Mechanism of return
   • Refusal of a return options (art. 12, 13, 20)
   • Central authority functions and performance
   • Enforcement of a return order

2. EU scheme on child abduction:
   • Regulation 2201/2003 in its art. 10 and 11
   • Distinction to Hague 1980 regime
   • Free circulation of a return order and enforcement under art. 42

3. Case law: ECHR, CJEU, national Croatian courts case law

5) Child in cross-border civil procedure

Forefront of this course is in addressing topics pertaining to procedural aspects of adjudicating in child related matters.

Topics covered by the course:

1. Jurisdiction (international) in child related requests
2. Lispendens in cross-border cases
3. Provisional measures in cross-border child related matters
4. Recognition, enforceability and enforcement of foreign judgements
   • regime for EU member states
   • regime for judgements of third countries
5. Taking of evidence in cross-border child related matters
6. Cooperation through central authority
7. Mediation in cross-border child related matters

6) Personal status and identity in cross-border movement 

Forefront of this course is in addressing topics pertaining to personal status and identity affected by cross-border movement.

Topics covered by the course:

1. Personal Status issues affected by cross-border movement
   • Problems of clumsily status
   • International/European/national instruments of regulation
   • EU action on promoting free movement of public documents and recognition of the effects of civil status records
2. Identity and culture in cross-border movement
3. Right to a name
   • Conventional system and national approaches
   • Citizenship and personal name issues
   • CJEU and ECtHR rulings

7) Right to family reunification in the EU

The aim of this course is to enable students to form a well-reasoned opinion on the regulation and functioning of the EU Internal Market and its actors’ behaviour. The course will confront the students with legal analysis and legal reasoning techniques in relation to EU Internal Market Law. Also, in-depth expert lectures will provide insights into interdisciplinary analyses combining law, economics and corporate governance.  Emphasis will be on procedural aspects.

Content of the course: following topics will be covered:

• Freedom of movement of workers
• EU citizenship
• The conditions under which family reunification is granted, as well as the rights of the family members concerned
• The meaning of the terms “public policy”, “public security” and “public health” as justifications for national measures which restrict free movement of persons
• Understand the status of third-country national family members of EU citizens according to the case-law of the CJ, Treaty provisions and Directive 2004/38 on the right of citizens of the Union and their family members to move and reside freely within the territory of the Member States.
• Case law study (e.g. Metock, Carpenter, Chen and Zhu, Ruiz Zambrano etc.)

8) Access to justice for children

Access to justice is a fundamental right and its recognition to members of vulnerable groups, especially children, should be given great attention. However, inability of children to obtain a just and timely remedy for violations of rights is equally present in both national and international judicial proceedings, affecting children.

In order to ensure that access to relevant information and to effective remedies,  counseling or advice, and possibility of legal representation is given to children while at the same time national and international standards are respected all legal experts who participate in proceedings concerning children should be provided with specialized training which is often lacking.

This course will focus on comparison of judicial proceedings, alternative mechanisms to formal judicial proceedings, work of Ombudsman Offices or similar institutions which receive complaints from children about violations of their rights, individual and collective complaints mechanisms established at the international level as well as procedures before ECHR and CJEU. Emphasize will be on crucial barriers to better compliance with international norms and standards as well as best practices to ensuring access to justice for children.

9) Child Labour and Youth Employment 

Some of 168 million children remain trapped in child labour while at the same time 75 million young persons aged 15 to 24 years in the World are unemployed and many more who must settle for jobs that fail to offer a fair income, security in the workplace and social security (ILO, 2015). In times of high migrant crisis in the EU, the problem of child labor, worst forms of child labour and economic exploitation of children and youth is gaining in importance and threatens to inflame. The lectures will therefore focus on the problem of defining child labour as well as it’s legal treatment in the EU and worldwide, through the discourse of the ILO Conventions (No. 138 and No.182), the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, Young Workers Directive and the European Social Charter. Through discussion and active participation of students, the lecture will discuss the historical background, causes, consequences and dangers of child labor and problems of existing legal solution of the international legal sources and EU Young Workers Directive in particularly, as well as relevant standards, concepts and policy (two way linkages between child labour and youth employment, how child labour and early school leaving affect transition paths of youth and their eventual employment outcomes; how youth employment difficulties and low returns to education can impact on households decisions, etc.).

10) Contact concerning children in international law

The right to contact will be analysed in international law (UN Convention on Children Rights, Convention of on contact concerning children, leading cases of ECHR in field of protection of family life, protection of right to contact with family members under the Hague Convention on Child abduction and Hague Convention on Parental Responsibilities and Measures for the protection of the child and protection of child rights to contact with family members under the law of EU

The right to contact btw. grandparents and grandchildren under the ECHR judgements e.g. protection of the family ties between grandparents and grandchildren.

The right of the child to express his/her view under the international instruments of UN, Council of Europe and EU Law.

11) Protection of children in cross-border crime cases

Children often appear as a victims of croos-border crime and human trafficking. The aim of this course is to provide students with a general overview of relevant legal framework in EU. Special emphasis will be put on so-called child alert mechanism – a system that aims to alert the public in cases of child abduction and where the life of a child is at risk. This mechanism still does not exist in Croatia. However, it is expected to be introduced in future. That is why it is important to introduce students with it.

12) European Migration Law and the Rights of Children

One of the main phenomena and challenges the EU is facing nowadays is migration. The aim of this course is to provide students with a general overview of EU migration law and policy. In this lectures, except from the general introduction about migration law, children as a specifically vulnerable group will be in focus. Students will work on the case-law of the CJEU and the European Court of Human Rights relating to the child migrants and will be motivated to the to discuss the issues of migration law and rights of the children. Students will acquire knowledge on the legal protection of the children in the area of freedom, security and justice and they will be motived to conduct a research and present the results about the status of children in the legal framework of the EU migration law and policy.