Under Article 371-4, paragraph 1 of the French Civil Code: “The child has the right to maintain personal relationships with their ascendants. Only the child’s best interest may prevent the exercise of this right.”
Often, within families, significant conflicts arise between parents and their own parents, such as when parents refuse to allow grandparents to see their grandchildren. Similarly, in the event of a parents’ divorce, the bond between grandchildren and grandparents may be threatened.
In such cases, grandparents wishing to see their grandchildren can instruct a lawyer to bring the matter before the Tribunal to establish their rights. The Tribunal will then determine the terms of the relationship between the grandparents and their grandchildren. Often, a social investigation will be ordered before the Tribunal makes a decision.
This principle of children’s rights to maintain a relationship with their grandparents stems from the right to respect for family life provided by the European Convention on Human Rights.
It is therefore presumed that the best interest of the grandchildren is to maintain ties with their grandparents.
Jurisprudence is generally favorable to grandparents and grants the rights they seek.
It has been held that the bond between a child and their ascendants is particularly important when the parent of the same line shows disinterest in the child or no longer has a relationship with them.
This right can only be opposed if it is proven that it is in the child’s best interest to do so, and the burden of proof lies with the parents who oppose it.
Thus, it is up to the parents who consider it not in their children’s interest to maintain ties with their grandparents to provide evidence that a relationship between their children and the said grandparents would be contrary to the children’s best interests.
Trial judges assess, in a sovereign manner and in consideration of the child’s best interests, whether or not to grant this right to the grandparents.
Refusal has been upheld, for example, in the case of a troubled family past, or in the presence of a longstanding and violent conflict between the grandmother and the child’s parents, or where disagreements between parents and grandparents could negatively affect the child.
Your family law lawyer in Paris can guide you on grandparents’ rights as well as children’s rights in such circumstances. Do not hesitate to contact your lawyer in Paris, who can also appear before the courts of Nanterre, Créteil, Bobigny, Meaux, Melun, Fontainebleau, Évry, Sens, Auxerre, Le Mesnil-Amelot, and throughout France with a local representative.
Maître Laurence Mayer, lawyer, can assist you throughout the procedure for recognition or contestation of paternity before the courts of Paris, Nanterre, Créteil, Versailles, Bobigny, Meaux, Melun, Fontainebleau, Évry, Sens, Auxerre, Le Mesnil-Amelot, and throughout France with a local representative.
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