European Family Law in Action ─ Parental Responsibilities

Katharina Boele-Woelki is Professor of Private International Law, Comparative Law and Family Law at Utrecht University, The Netherlands and Extraordinary Professor at the University of the Western Cape, South-Africa. Since 2001 she has been the chair of the Commission on European Family Law which was established upon her initiative. She is president of the Dutch Association of Family Law, member of the board of the Dutch Association of Comparative Law, and member of several editorial boards of Dutch and European and South-African law journals. She is also a member of various associations, such as the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Völkerrecht as well as the Wissenschaftliche Vereinigung für Familienrecht. Since 2003 she has been one of the editors of the European Family Law Series. In 2007 she established the Utrecht Centre for European Research into Family Law (UCERF). She is a titular member of the International Academy of Comparative Law. She has organized prestigious international conferences, delivered numerous guest lectures at various universities around the world and has acted as a reporter, speaker, expert and panel member in many international conferences. In 2011 she has been awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Uppsala. In 2012 she has received the Anneliese Maier Forschungspreis of the Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung (Germany) for her work in the field of international and European family law. In 2013 she has been elected member of the International Advisory Board of the Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung. In 2014 she had been elected President of the International Academy of Comparative Law. Since 2015 she is taking on a new position as president of the Bucerius Law School.

Bente Braat is researcher at the Molengraaff Institute for Private Law of the Faculty of Law of Utrecht University. She obtained her PhD with the thesis “Indépendance et interdépendance patrimoniales des époux dans le régime matrimonial légal des droits français, néerlandais et suisse“ (2005).

After having received a Law Degree (cum laude) from Christ’s College, Cambridge University, Ian Curry-Sumner emigrated from England to The Netherlands in 2001. From 2001 to 2005 he was engaged in doctoral research in the field of international family law. This research culminated in the defence of his PhD in 2005, for which he won the Ius Commune Prize in 2005 and the AISDC Prize from the Swiss Institute for Comparative Law in 2008. From 2005 to 2012 Ian Curry-Sumner was employed by the Molengraaff Institute for Private Law, firstly as a junior lecturer (adjunct professor), thereafter as a lecturer and researcher (Assistant professor) and finally up until his departure as senior lecturer and researcher (Associate professor). During his time at Utrecht University, Ian wrote numerous publications on a wide variety of topics in the field of national and international family law, including books, articles, contributions to books and annotations. He has also translated the Dutch Civil Code and edited numerous volumes in the European Family Law Series. In 2011, Ian Curry-Sumner announced his departure from the academic world and founded Voorts Legal Services.