Illegal law
| Basic data | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Law on the legal status of illegitimate children |
| Short title: | Non- marital law non- official |
| Abbreviation: | NEhelG |
| Type: | Federal law |
| Scope: | Federal Republic of Germany |
| Legal matter: | Family law |
| References : | 404-18 |
| Issued on: | August 19, 1969 ( Federal Law Gazette I p. 1243 ) |
| Entry into force on: | July 1, 1970 |
| Last change by: |
Art. 1 G of April 12, 2011 ( BGBl. I p. 615 ) |
| Effective date of the last change: |
predominantly May 29, 2011 (Art. 5 G of April 12, 2011) |
| GESTA : | C046 |
| Please note the note on the applicable legal version. | |
The law on the legal status of illegitimate children , or illegitimate law for short , is a German law that came into force on July 1, 1970. The law passed under the first German grand coalition was intended to eliminate the inequalities between legitimate and illegitimate children. It was an article law that changed the fourth book of the BGB ( family law ) as well as numerous other laws.
Emergence
However, its adoption was forced by the Federal Constitutional Court , which with its decision of January 29, 1969 (BVerfGE 25, 167) set the legislature a deadline until the end of the legislative period in the summer of 1969. The basis was Article 6 (5) of the Basic Law with its request to the legislature to create the same development conditions for illegitimate children as legitimate children.
However, the implementation of this requirement by the legislature was imperfect. However, the illegitimate law abolished the BGB regulation, which had been in effect since 1900, according to which an illegitimate child and his father were not considered to be related .
Relationship between child and father
The NEhelG brought biological and legal relationships between the illegitimate child and his father into harmony for the first time. The objection of multiple traffic could no longer block a judicial determination of paternity .
Changes to inheritance law
With the establishment of the legal relationship , a change in inheritance law was necessary, which had not previously existed between the father and his illegitimate child. Although the legislature could not bring itself to a complete equality of legitimate and illegitimate children in inheritance law, it did at least eliminate the financial disadvantage of the illegitimate child by introducing a right to inheritance that was equal in value to the inheritance claim, but a participation of the illegitimate child in the community of heirs after the late father excluded.
To compensate for this disadvantage, however, the illegitimate child was given preference over the legitimate child through the possibility of early inheritance compensation (already during the father's lifetime, comparable to renouncing inheritance ). This could be notarized , agreed between father and child or sued by the child. It was not until April 1, 1998 that these children were given full inheritance rights. However, this did not apply to children born before July 1, 1949 until May 29, 2009. One problem of the so-called inheritance law equality of illegitimate children with legitimate children is that neither the wife nor the legitimate children are reliably informed about the existence of illegitimate children from the husband or father before the death of the husband or father, while the illegitimate children at the latest if they are aware of their father's entry in their birth certificate, they are safely informed.
Changes to maintenance law
The right of were improved determination of paternity and paternity and the child support right , which could also pass through the minimum maintenance in the form of so-called. Control maintenance in a simplified process.
However, the child remained in a worse position in terms of custody , which was assigned to the mother, restricted by the official custody of the youth welfare office , which entered into when the child was born out of wedlock . The father was able to declare his illegitimate child in wedlock or adopt it if the mother agreed, but with the result that he was then alone in custody and the mother lost custody. If the parents wanted to exercise their custody together, they had to get married, otherwise there was always only one parent, usually the mother. This regulation was also repealed in 1998 by the possibility of a joint declaration of custody .
Father's rights of access
The father's personal relationships with his illegitimate child were limited to a right to information from the mother about the child's personal circumstances and to a right of contact , which he could only enforce against the will of the mother if it was possible to prove that this contact was for the good serve the child . This makes it clear that although the strongest discrimination against illegitimate children was eliminated with the illegitimate law, the constitutional requirement of equal treatment of illegitimate and legitimate children was by no means satisfied. This equality did not take place until July 1, 1998 through the Childhood Law Reform Act (after the equality of legitimate and illegitimate children in the GDR had already taken place in 1950).
Abolition of the family council
The traditional institution of the family council (§§ 1858 - 1881 BGB old version) was abolished without replacement by the law against marriage.
See also
swell
- ↑ BVerfG decision of January 29, 1969, BVerfGE 25. 167
- ↑ Decision of the BVerfG of November 20, 2003 - 1 BvR 2257/03 -
- ↑ Art. 12 § 10 Abs. 2 NEhelG -
