Topic: Restorative justice
Author
Vivian Jessica Salles Vieira Pinto, Maastricht University, Privaatrecht, Maastricht, Netherlands (Presenting Author)
1 Maastricht University, Maastricht, Netherlands
Background/significance
Originating from Brazil, as an adoptee herself, Vivian is a docent at Maastricht University, conducting PhD research focusing on the rights of adoptees and family privacy.
The right to know, a crucial aspect of adoptees’ rights, remains conceptually obscure. While information about parentage is taken for granted by many, it may be a colossal gap for adopted individuals. The lack of conceptual clarity leads to practical challenges in the pursuit of information.
Aim
This paper endeavors to enrich family scholarship by addressing the central question: what role does the lack of a definition for the right to know play in the access to origin information by adoptees, and how can legal interpretation techniques contribute to the development of more effective and consistent legal mechanism in ensuring adoptees’ rights to know?
Project description or research methods
Employing the doctrinal method, which is apt for scrutinizing legal concepts and principles through an extensive review of pertinent literature, this study investigates (a) How was the right to know conceived within the context of adoption? (b) How has the right to know been treated at an international level and EU level? (c) What are the challenges posed by the lack of a legal definition of the right to know? and (d) how can purposive interpretation contribute to the development of a more effective and consistent right to know?
Results
Work in progress*
Discussion and implications
As a hypothesis, the lack of a clear definition of the right to know for adoptees mainly creates uncertainty about the information they are entitled to access. It is unclear if the right to know only grants access to adoption records or also guarantees access to socio-cultural and biological information of biological family members. However, a purposive interpretation suggests that the right to know should be extensive and include genetic and health information about the biological family.
