Top
Skip to Content
LOGO(small) - Queen's University Belfast
  • Our facebook
  • Our x-twitter
  • Our youtube
  • Our instagram
LOGO(large) - Queen's University Belfast

School of

Law

  • Home
  • Study
    • Undergraduate
    • Postgraduate Taught
    • Postgraduate Research
    • Graduate Degrees
    • Why Law at Queen's
    • Student Experience
    • Student Blog
    • Pathways to Qualification
  • Research
    • Research Projects
    • Research Environment
    • Impact and Engagement
    • Law Lab
    • Publications
    • Research Students
    • Northern Ireland Legal Quarterly
    • Visiting Scholars
    • Visiting Students
    • Public Lectures
    • Postdoctoral Research
  • Employability
    • Skills Development
    • Legal Placement Module
    • Employer Zone
    • Our Graduates
    • Mooting
    • Alumni Testimonials
    • Legal Practitioners
  • About
    • Location
    • Facilities
    • Diversity and Inclusion
    • Student Law Society
    • Pathways Opportunity Programme
    • Fordham Summer School
  • People
    • Academic Staff
    • Administrative Support
  • News
    • Archive 2021-22
    • Archive 2019-20
    • Archive 2018-19
    • Archive 2017-18
    • Archive 2016-17
    • Archive 2015-16
  • Events
    • Events 2023-24
  • Home
  • Study
    • Undergraduate
    • Postgraduate Taught
    • Postgraduate Research
    • Graduate Degrees
    • Why Law at Queen's
    • Student Experience
    • Student Blog
    • Pathways to Qualification
  • Research
    • Research Projects
    • Research Environment
    • Impact and Engagement
    • Law Lab
    • Publications
    • Research Students
    • Northern Ireland Legal Quarterly
    • Visiting Scholars
    • Visiting Students
    • Public Lectures
    • Postdoctoral Research
  • Employability
    • Skills Development
    • Legal Placement Module
    • Employer Zone
    • Our Graduates
    • Mooting
    • Alumni Testimonials
    • Legal Practitioners
  • About
    • Location
    • Facilities
    • Diversity and Inclusion
    • Student Law Society
    • Pathways Opportunity Programme
    • Fordham Summer School
  • People
    • Academic Staff
    • Administrative Support
  • News
    • Archive 2021-22
    • Archive 2019-20
    • Archive 2018-19
    • Archive 2017-18
    • Archive 2016-17
    • Archive 2015-16
  • Events
    • Events 2023-24
  • Our facebook
  • Our x-twitter
  • Our youtube
  • Our instagram
In This Section
  • Events 2023-24

  • Home
  • School of Law
  • Events

Events

Recent Jurisprudence on Adoptee Identity Rights

Back to events
Smiling dark-haired woman
Date(s)
April 3, 2025
Location
The Board Room, School of Law, QUB (MST.09.022)
Time
12:00 - 13:00
Price
Free of charge
Sign up here

Queen's University Belfast School of Law


QUB Human Rights Centre Seminar Series

Recent jurisprudence on Adoptee Identity Rights: New Truths and Tokens, Old Tropes?
Dr Alice Diver, School of Law, QUB

Despite its emphasis on accessing medical information, the recent ECtHR decision in Mitrevska v North Macedonia [2024] has been framed by some as a significant milestone for adoptees seeking to challenge state-fabricated secrecies surrounding their natal ancestries, kinships, and early life histories (Helmhart, 2024; Dute and Goffin, 2024). The Strasbourg Court has previously highlighted the need to avoid deprivation of origin where possible within the various ‘constellations’ of adoptive kinship (Grand, 2011) and across the vagaries of family life (in, for example, Anayo v Germany [2010], I.S. v Germany [2014], and the Dissenting Opinions in Odièvre v France [2003]). It has stopped well short however of endorsing a full-blown right to access – or in any way own – one’s own birth information. The reasoning in Mitrevska might still resonate though with those orphanized via relinquishment processes in domestic law, particularly within jurisdictions that are currently undergoing (or attempting to craft) just systems for reparation or redress involving adoptee rights of access to sealed, vetoed, or altered birth records (e.g. Northern Ireland, South Korea, Canada). Likewise, those who must decision-make on issues of adoptee identity and welfare within domestic courts may be struck by certain inconsistencies of reasoning. Cases such as Seddon (2015) and In the Matter of Two Children: Freeing for Adoption (2022) suggest that adoption orders generally denote ‘…no real prospects for rehabilitation or family reunification’ (para 20) even where there seems to be some scope for remembered relatedness ‘rights’ to exist, arise, or be protected e.g. via judicial tolerance for mnemonic devices: photographs, gifts, or types of contact. That said, in Re T & R (Refusal of Placement Order) (2021) the benefits of familial contact were stressed, in terms of actively preserving original kinship ties and cultural heritage. There are further parallels here with archaic foundling tokens, those small but significant identifier objects left behind deliberately by first mothers in the hope that their ‘relinquished’ infants might one day seek them out. A key question, arguably, is that of ownership: who actually owns - or holds on trust perhaps – the various items (such as medical records or original birth certificates) that can contain or embody individual, identifying truths and some right of access to them?

Thursday 3 April at 12:00pm in The Board Room (MST.09.022)

Event type
Lecture / Talk / Discussion
Department
School of Law
Audience
All
Undergraduate Students
Postgraduate Students
Academics / Researchers
Staff
Alumni
General Public
Venue Information
Yes
Add to calendar
Subject/Theme
Academic
International
Legal
Event Organiser Details
Name Deaglan Coyle
Phone 02890973293
Email d.p.coyle@qub.ac.uk
Share
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Weibo
  • Email
Smiling dark-haired woman
Sign up here
Events
  • Events 2023-24
QUB Logo
Contact Us

Contact


School Of Law

Main Site Tower
University Square
Belfast BT7 1NN

All Enquiries
  • +44(0)28 90975122
  • law-enquiries@qub.ac.uk

GET DIRECTIONS

Mailing List


Keep up to date with the latest news and events from the School by joining our Mailing List

Quick Links


  • Study
  • Research
  • People
  • About
  • News

Social Media


© Queen's University Belfast 2024
  • Privacy and cookies
  • Website accessibility
  • Freedom of information
  • Modern slavery statement
  • Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
  • University Policies and Procedures
Information
  • Privacy and cookies
  • Website accessibility
  • Freedom of information
  • Modern slavery statement
  • Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
  • University Policies and Procedures

© Queen's University Belfast 2024

Manage cookies