Recovery of Maintenance in the EU and Worldwide
International Conference in Heidelberg from 5 until 8 March 2013
From 5 until 8 March 2013, the German Institute for Youth Human Services and Family Law in Heidelberg will hold an international conference on “Recovery of Maintenance in the EU and Worldwide”. The conference is the key element of an EU-funded joint research project. Project partners beside the German Institute for Youth Human Services and Family Law are the University of Heidelberg (Prof. Dr. Burkhard Hess, Stefanie Spancken), the University of Aberdeen (Prof. Paul Beaumont, Lara Walker), the German Federal Ministry of Justice, the Hague Conference on Private International Law, NCSEA (USA) and the University of Lyon (Prof. Frédérique Ferrand).
The project, combining scientific research, networking and the conference, aims to strengthen cross-border cooperation to promote the effective implementation of the new legal framework.
We expect participants from all over the world: The Heidelberg Conference addresses to government and authority representatives as well as lawyers, judges, scientists and professionals of all relevant fields to exchange experience and knowledge. Besides the possibility of discussing interesting issues of law and practice, the conference will also offer the opportunity to get to know each other across borders and to establish networks.
More than 50 contributions from all over the world were submitted in response to our “Call for Papers” (JAmt 2012, 79). Among the speakers are practitioners and academics from all continents, including countries ranging from Chile to Australia, from the USA to Kazakhstan, from Namibia to Norway. We are expecting keynote speeches like "Cultural dimension of maintenance from an international law perspective" and presentations of high practical relevance like “Practical problems of the 2007 Hague Protocol” and “Good practice for caseworkers”and panel discussions about “High functional administrative systems”. For more details on the project, please visit www.heidelberg-conference2013.de. More information on the conference program will also be available there soon.
The conference will scientifically examine the cross-border recovery of maintenance in the EU and worldwide from many angles and also discuss its implementation into practice. The workshop “Cooperation between Central Authorities” will report on their experiences and analyze the role on the Central Authorities in cross-border cases. Other topics like Implementation of the Hague Convention and the use of information technology will also be treated. The conference will further discuss issues of international private law and legal relations from an academic perspective. Last but not least you will get the opportunity to learn more about the maintenance law from States like Africa, Latin America and Russia.
Research
In the course of the project qualitative and quantitative research will be carried out by the University of Aberdeen (Prof. Paul R. Beaumont and Lara Walker) and the University of Heidelberg (Prof. Dr. Burkhard Hess und Stefanie Spancken). This will include an examination of the legal and actual implementation of the EU Maintenance Regulation in its first year in force. Moreover, a comparative legal analysis of the role of Central Authorities in the international recovery of maintenance as well as of the respective implementation laws of the individual states will be carried out. The research findings will be presented at the conference.
Newsletter
The newsletter ‘Child Support and Family Maintenance’ provides regular updates on the project and other interesting news concerning the cross-border recovery of maintenance. If you wish to receive our current conference letters, please send an E-Mail to: childsupport@dijuf.de.
Further information
Here you can find a short description of the project 'Recovery of Maintenance in the EU and Worldwide' as a pdf file