How do the courts establish who is the father?
Our law, like many other continental frameworks, provides its own set of rules for the impeachment or confirmation of biological parentage. These rules do not lend themselves to straightforward interpretation and are often complex in their differentiation of various possible base scenarios leading to judicial action. In the proceedings in the names ‘AB v CD pro et noe and the Director of Public Registry (application number 44/18/2 AGV)’ the plaintiff had originally brought a claim for disavowal of paternity of a minor. Ordered by the court in first instance, the plaintiff rooted his claim in terms of articles 99, 77(b) and 70(1d) of the Civil Code. Naturally, the defendants contested the claim. Article 99 provides for the possibility of impeachment of an acknowledgment of a child conceived and born out of wedlock. Article 70(1d), then provides the possibility to any spouse (except, of course, for the spouse who gave birth to the child), to bring an action to repudiate a child born in wedlock if such spouse proves that, during the said time, the spouse who gave birth had committed adultery or had concealed the pregnancy and the birth of the child. Article 77(b) provides that the...