order to determine and/or promote family law legislation within Europe l. Interest in a european family law 1. 1 Activities of academics The literature which deals with the unification or harmonisation of family law in Europe remains for the time being, easy to survey. In the last few years-as far as the Dutch situation is concerned-a number of doctoral theses have appeared, wherein the institutions of family law have been subjected to comparative law research. The general principles of European family law have not been elaborated upon in these theses, however. Furthermore, Article 8 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms(EChr)in particular, together with the case law of the Court of Justice based thereon, provides sufficient reason both at home and abroad to bring national family law into conformity with the right of respect for family life which is formulated in general terms in that article. The manner in which and the extent to which this occurs are not the same in all countries In the Dutch legal literature, two contributions which investigate the phe European family law appeared in 1995. De groot looked into the question of how a European persons and family law could be established. o From a practical point of view, it seemed to him to be an attractive proposition to combine the strong points at a European level by negotiating a treaty in which an attempt would be made to codify <the basic principles of European family law= which are built upon already existing treaty obligations. The organisations which could deal with a similar treaty are, in his opinion, the Council of Europe, possibly in cooperation with the Commission International d'Etat Civil(CIEC). According to De Groot, however, attaining uniformity or harmonisation at a European level will no doubt be difficult. While the title of De Groot's article was formulated as a question, the second contribution, written by one of the most important Dutch ad vocates of a European private law, has an air of self-confidence. The contribution by Hondius is entitled Naar een Europees personen-en familierecht(<Towards a See C. Forder, <Legal establishment of the parent-child relationship: Constitutional principles in Dutch English and German law, having regard to the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and other applicable international instruments=, doctoral thesis Maastricht 1995 (comparative research of Dutch, German and English law); G.E. Schmidt, <Sterke en zwakke adoptees=, doctoral thesis University of Amsterdam 1996(comparative research of Dutch, German and French law). See also A Isenbeck, <Traditionelles niederlandisches Familienrecht und europaische Einflusse=, doctoral thesis Munster 1995 See for the Netherlands, for example, C. van Wamelen, <Ouderschap en ouderlijk gezag na echtscheiding doctoral thesis Rotterdam. Zwolle 1987 G-R. de groot, <Op weg naar een Europees personen-en familierecht?=, Ars Aequi 1995, vol 44, no. 1, pp 29-33 11Idem,pp.30-31 E H. Hondius, <Naar een Europees personen-en famil ierecht=, in: H. Franken and J de ruiter, Drie Over politiek, beleid en recht, Zwolle 1995, pp 173-1813 order to determine and/or promote family law legislation within Europe. 1. Interest in a European family law 1.1 Activities of academics The literature which deals with the unification or harmonisation of family law in Europe remains, for the time being, easy to survey. In the last few years - as far as the Dutch situation is concerned - a number of doctoral theses have appeared,8 wherein the institutions of family law have been subjected to comparative law research. The general principles of European family law have not been elaborated upon in these theses, however. Furthermore, Article 8 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (ECHR) in particular, together with the case law of the Court of Justice based thereon, provides sufficient reason both at home and abroad to bring national family law into conformity with the right of respect for family life which is formulated in general terms in that article.9 The manner in which and the extent to which this occurs are not the same in all countries. In the Dutch legal literature, two contributions which investigate the phenomenon of a European family law appeared in 1995. De Groot looked into the question of how a European persons and family law could be established.10 From a practical point of view, it seemed to him to be an attractive proposition to combine the strong points at a European level by negotiating a treaty in which an attempt would be made to codify <the basic principles of European family law= which are built upon already existing treaty obligations. The organisations which could deal with a similar treaty are, in his opinion, the Council of Europe, possibly in cooperation with the Commission International d'Etat Civil (CIEC). According to De Groot, however, attaining uniformity or harmonisation at a European level will no doubt be difficult.11 While the title of De Groot's article was formulated as a question, the second contribution, written by one of the most important Dutch advocates of a European private law, has an air of self-confidence. The contribution by Hondius12 is entitled Naar een Europees personen- en familierecht (<Towards a 8 See C. Forder, <Legal establishment of the parent-child relationship: Constitutional principles in Dutch, English and German law, having regard to the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and other applicable international instruments=, doctoral thesis Maastricht 1995 (comparative research of Dutch, German and English law); G.E. Schmidt, <Sterke en zwakke adopties=, doctoral thesis University of Amsterdam 1996 (comparative research of Dutch, German and French law). See also A. Isenbeck, <Traditionelles niederländisches Familienrecht und europäische Einflüsse=, doctoral thesis Münster 1995. 9 See for the Netherlands, for example, C. van Wamelen, <Ouderschap en ouderlijk gezag na echtscheiding=, doctoral thesis Rotterdam, Zwolle 1987. 10 G.-R. de Groot, <Op weg naar een Europees personen- en familierecht?=, Ars Aequi 1995, vol. 44, no. 1, pp. 29-33. 11 Idem, pp. 30-31. 12 E.H. Hondius, <Naar een Europees personen- en familierecht=, in: H. Franken and J. de Ruiter, Drie treden: Over politiek, beleid en recht, Zwolle 1995, pp. 173-181