All relationships traditionally regulated by family law are significantly influenced by cultural notions, which family law can either align with or contradict.
This project examines how family law responds to different cultural and religious expectations by focusing on three specific areas: the law on religious upbringing, the law regulating civil marriage, and the legal treatment of alternative family forms beyond marriage. Regarding these three aspects, legal rules can operate on two levels: in determining the applicable national law through conflict of laws and in resolving legal disputes according to national family law. For example, conflict of laws rules determines whether the family law relationships of a person living in Germany but holding a different nationality are governed by the law of that country or by German law. On a secondary level, it must be clarified how substantive German family law, when applicable, relates to different religious and cultural expectations. Are certain values enforced against divergent cultural notions or are culturally determined behaviors tolerated in family relationships?
