JERSEY Law and Practice Contributed by: Lauren Glynn, Victoria Cure and Tara Lee, Carey Olsen
Carey Olsen 47 Esplanade
St Helier JE1 0BD Jersey Tel: +44 1534 888900 Email: jerseyco@careyolsen.com Web: www.careyolsen.com
1. The Care Provider’s Ability to Take Decisions About the Child 1.1 Parental Responsibility In Jersey, a parent’s decision-making power is known as parental responsibility. It is defined in Article 1 (1) of the Children (Jersey) Law 2002 (CJL) as being “all the rights, duties, powers, responsibilities and authority that the parent of a child has in relation to the child and the child’s property”. Parental responsibility encompasses the right to make important decisions about a child, including, but not limited to, their education, religion, healthcare, name and where they should live. 1.2 Requirements for Birth Mothers A child’s birth mother automatically acquires parental responsibility in Jersey. 1.3 Requirements for Fathers A father’s parental responsibility is dependent on his relationship to the child’s mother at the time of a child’s birth. A father will only automatically have parental respon - sibility if the mother and father were married, or civil partners, at the time of the child’s birth or if the child was born in Jersey after 2 December 2016 and the father’s name is registered on the child’s birth cer - tificate. For children born in Jersey before 2 December 2016, if the child’s father and mother are neither married to, nor civil partners of, each other at the time of the
child’s birth, a father will not automatically have paren - tal responsibility for his child(ren). In order to acquire parental responsibility, an unmarried father must enter into a parental responsibility agreement with the child’s mother or apply to the court for a parental responsi - bility order. A parental responsibility agreement must be made in the form set out in the Schedule to the Children (Parental Responsibility Agreement) Rules 2005 and must be filed with the Family Division of the Royal Court of Jersey. In the case of children born in Jersey before 2 December 2016, a father who is registered on the child’s birth certificate will acquire parental responsibility for a child upon subsequently marrying, or entering into a civil partnership with, the child’s mother. Jersey is not currently party to the Convention of 19 October 1996 on Jurisdiction, Applicable Law, Rec - ognition, Enforcement and Co-Operation in Respect of Parental Responsibility and Measure for the Pro - tection of Children. This means that, even if a parent had parental responsibility for a child in the country in which they previously lived and/or in which the child was born, that position may not be recognised in Jer - sey. The factors to be considered in determining whether to grant parental responsibility to an unmarried father pursuant to Article 5 of the CJL 2002 were confirmed by the Royal Court in G v K 2005 JLR N [39], as follows: • the commitment of the father to the child; • the attachment between the father and child; and • the father’s motivation for the application.
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