Ar gali būti ribojama tėvų teisė parinkti vaiko vardą?

The aim of this thesis is to investigate whether the parents’ right to choose a child’s name can be restricted. The subject is relevant and this is justified by reviews of legal regulations and case law of different countries. The analysis shows that there are some cases when parents irresponsibly c...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Mizgaitienė, Ugnė
Other Authors: Malinauskas, Vygantas
Format: Master Thesis
Language:Lithuanian
English
Published: Institutional Repository of Vytautas Magnus University 2014
Subjects:
Online Access:https://vb.vdu.lt/VDU:ELABAETD2146146&prefLang=en_US
Description
Summary:The aim of this thesis is to investigate whether the parents’ right to choose a child’s name can be restricted. The subject is relevant and this is justified by reviews of legal regulations and case law of different countries. The analysis shows that there are some cases when parents irresponsibly choose names for their children, thus violating child’s interests. In order to answer this problematic question, it is important to clarify the concepts of a child and a name considering both general and legal definitions. In this paper, a child is a special entity for whose proper fulfillment of rights a special protection is provided. The thesis also assesses the functions of legal regulations taking into account whether the legal norms that regulate name registration process means that the country ensures and respects child’s rights. It is emphasized that the concept of name is used in its narrow sense, excluding last name and nickname. Moreover, another relevant question of the thesis is the right to the name and privacy relation. It is emphasized that child’s name is the component of identity, therefore both child’s parents and the country have to ensure that child’s identity and relation with the family are preserved. This aspect is investigated referring to both European Court of Human Rights and judicial judgments of other countries. Only those questions that are related to the content of child’s right to the name are discussed in the practical part. After a review of the main arguments of the court, it is concluded that a child’s right to the name is closely related to child’s rights, including the right to the preservation of individuality, the right to a healthy development, security of dignity and non-discrimination. Thus the thesis individually distinguishes a child’s right to identity, linking that a person’s name is a reference to the state where a child lives and to the family where the child was born. Based on psychological studies, a person’s name is much more than just a distinctive feature that helps to distinguish one from another. It is observed that the influence of child’s name is seen from the time a child begins to understand the meaning of the name sound. What a child hears during development, how environment reacts to the name create his own conception of himself, so naturally the name becomes a part of personality and not just a word. One of the most interesting studies have shown that a person’s name can influence not only the future professional career, but also can carry a message about a person’s race. The thesis raises a question whether the restriction of the right to the name would not violate parents’ interests from a perspective of private family life. A comparative analysis of different countries case law leads to the conclusion that in name debate at first the child welfare aspect has to be ensured in so far as it is proportional and necessary with regard to other rights. Certain states that have separate laws regulating naming procedures in their legal system have been distinguished. Mostly normative regulation of Nordic countries is mentioned (Iceland, Finland, Sweden, Denmark). This regulation provides the procedure of names registration, it also has a certain list of approved names from which parents can choose their children names. Analyzing the naming procedure, the functioning of such systems are evaluated in parallel, according to what reasons people apply to the court. The results show that a very strict naming regulation not only limits family’s private life and the right to freely choose their children names, but also violate the interests of a child when without hurting the dignity of a person or public policy, the name is rejected in public records because of non-compliance with legal regulation. The victims of such situations become children who are left against their will to live without a name for a while. However, after the analysis, it is found out that the fact that a country has a certain legal regulation on name registration procedure does not mean that family’s right to privacy is violated. The thesis draws a considerable attention to the importance of name in a person’s life and its legal function. After a comparison of legal framework in different countries, it is noticed that a person’s name should not mislead society, violate good morals and public interest. Moreover, in Lithuania and some other countries a person’s name cannot be understood ambiguously with respect to sex and cannot violate human right to the full life. However, it is mentioned that there are some states where the same name can be used for both males and females. The thesis leads to the conclusion that parents’ right to choose a child’s name can be restricted, however, it can be done only in those cases where it is necessary in order to protect society and child’s interests. The key aspect of the latter is to put all efforts to reduce or prevent risk of mischief.