Blended families: what rights for step-parents?
Legally, it's nothingness
Even if the most invested and most involved parents-in-law have a real role within the families Contemporary French, from a legal point of view, they have no existence, no duty or no right. Yet, many people, actively participating in the daily life and education of thechild and often becoming a second father / second mother in terms of attachment, claim the simple right to be able to take thechild from their spouse to the doctor for example.
For lack of better
However, two provisions of the Civil Code allow the step-parent:
- to exercise, totally or partially, the parental authority over thechild spouse. Voluntary delegation by parents to a third party (governed by Article 377 of the Civil Code) provides that the judge may decide to delegate all or part of the exercise of parental authority to a "reliable relative" at the request of the father and mother, acting together or separately "where the circumstances so require".
- to share the exercise of parental authority with one of the two parentsor both. The delegation-sharing (introduced by the law n ° 2002-305 of March 4, 2002 relating to the parental authority, appears in article 377-1 of the civil code) declares indeed that the judge can envisage a sharing of the parental authority between the parents of the'child and the delegated third party "for the purposes of the education of thechild ". Unlike the voluntary delegation, this device allows the step-parent to participate in the exercise of parental authority without either of the two parents do not lose your prerogatives. As "the sharing requires the agreement of the parents in so far as they exercise parental authority ", the step-parent is deemed to act with the agreement of the parents. However, the express consent of the latter remains necessary for serious acts.
But these measures are not reserved for the step-parent and can therefore be implemented for the benefit of other third parties. In all cases, a decision of the family court judge (which can only be entered by the parents holders of parental authority) is necessary.
And in case of new separation?
In case of separation from the parent of thechild from his new spouse, it is expected that thechild may continue to see his step-parent if he so wishes (even if there is a conflict between the parent and the step-parent). Under the article of the civil code providing for the rights of large parents, a provision aimed at maintaining links between thechild and a close third party ("parent or not" and provided that thechild have interest) was inserted in 2007.
