부모 외의 자의 면접교섭권

A study on non-parental visitation rights: with focus on the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights

In this paper we analyzed several decisions taken by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) regarding visitation between non-parents and children, in order to provide some suggestions in relation to the direction to be taken by Korean legislators in this respective field. To this end, we briefly covered the content of some relevant sources of law. We provided a general overview of article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, the Convention on Contact concerning Children, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and a brief explanation of the general criteria used by the ECtHR in relation to visitation rights, particularly regarding the existence of “family life”, as well as some mentions of the positive obligations, margin of appreciation, and proportionality doctrines. We subsequently covered some of the ECtHR’s decisions-namely, Manuello and Nevi v. Italy, and Bogonosovy v. Russia in relation to the visitation rights of grandparents, as well as Kopf and Liberda v. Austria and V.D. and Others v. Russia about foster families’ visitation rights-by examining the application of article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights by the ECtHR in these circumstances. In the final section, with reference to the outcome of the aforementioned decisions, we sought to provide some inputs regarding what ought to be considered for the expansion of visitation rights in Korea.