Principle of ensuring the best interests of the child: international legal foundations, national regulation and judicial practice

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to clarify the content of the principle of ensuring the best interests of the child, to determine the specifics of its normative consolidation in international and national law, and to analyse the practice of its application by courts, primarily the European Court of Human Rights and the national courts of Ukraine.

The study uses formal legal, comparative legal, systemic structural, logical semantic and hermeneutic methods. These methods made it possible to reveal the content of the category “best interests of the child”, trace its consolidation in international treaties and national legislation, and assess the peculiarities of its judicial interpretation.

The article examines the essence of the principle of the best interests of the child, its legal consolidation and the peculiarities of practical implementation. International instruments are analysed, in particular the UN Declaration of the Rights of the Child, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the European Convention on the Exercise of Children’s Rights, as well as national legal acts reflecting this principle. It is substantiated that the category of the best interests of the child is complex in nature, cannot be reduced only to a set of subjective rights of the child, and requires an individualised approach taking into account the child’s age, health, life experience, family environment and views [1; 5; 6]. Special attention is paid to the practice of the European Court of Human Rights in cases concerning family reunification, contact with the child, residence of the child, adoption, deprivation of parental rights and establishment of paternity [1; 10; 11].

It is concluded that the principle of ensuring the best interests of the child is a fundamental cross-sectoral principle that should determine the content and direction of decisions made by parents, public authorities, guardianship bodies, courts and other actors whenever such decisions concern a child. Its effective implementation requires not only legislative consolidation but also stable judicial practice capable of giving priority to the child’s interests over formalistic or adult-centred approaches.