The enforcement of maintenance decisions in the EU : requiem for public policy? Family relationships and the (partial) abolition of exequatur

This chapter deals with some aspects of the public policy defence by focusing on the relationship between the recognition of foreign maintenance decisions and the problem of the underlying family relationship. It analyses the (partial) abolition of exequatur for maintenance decisions in the European Union (section II). Consequently it examines whether public policy is actually weakening, despite the need for safeguarding domestic values, mirrored in the most recent Regulations in family matters (sections III and IV). In view of the increasing divergence of modern families from the traditional family archetype the overall objective of this chapter is to show how the most traditional Member States cope with the issue of the enforcement of maintenance decisions founded on unknown family patterns (sections V and VI).