<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>The current understandings and practices related to biological and social fatherhood raise a crucial legal question about which model of fatherhood determination should be adapted to contemporary society: the model of a biological or social father bearing the rights and obligations related to the child. The general ideologies of being a father and the application of different approaches have been analysed comparatively, also trying to provide the best legal policy to consider when interpreting the rules of parenthood in Estonian Family Law Act and the Estonian legal practice. The paper considers the emerging legal concept of social fatherhood to be an inevitable prerequisite for protection of the interest of the child.</p></abstract>

The current understandings and practices related to biological and social fatherhood raise a crucial legal question about which model of fatherhood determination should be adapted to contemporary society: the model of a biological or social father bearing the rights and obligations related to the child. The general ideologies of being a father and the application of different approaches have been analysed comparatively, also trying to provide the best legal policy to consider when interpreting the rules of parenthood in Estonian Family Law Act and the Estonian legal practice. The paper considers the emerging legal concept of social fatherhood to be an inevitable prerequisite for protection of the interest of the child.

European Dilemmas of the Biological versus Social Father: The Case of Estonia

Baltic Journal of Law & Politics

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

{"article-title":"European Dilemmas of the Biological versus Social Father: The Case of Estonia"}

The current understandings and practices related to biological and social fatherhood raise a crucial legal question about which model of fatherhood...

European Dilemmas of the Biological versus Social Father: The Case of Estonia

Published Online: Mar 04, 2017

Page range: 23 - 42

Received: Nov 11, 2016

Accepted: Dec 12, 2016

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/bjlp-2016-0010

Keywords
Biological father, legal father, social father, paternity, fatherhood

© 2016 Kristi Joamets et al., published by De Gruyter Open

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

European Dilemmas of the Biological versus Social Father: The Case of Estonia

Published Online: Mar 04, 2017

Page range: 23 - 42

Received: Nov 11, 2016

Accepted: Dec 12, 2016

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/bjlp-2016-0010

KeywordsBiological father, legal father, social father, paternity, fatherhood

© 2016 Kristi Joamets et al., published by De Gruyter Open

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Keywords
Biological father, legal father, social father, paternity, fatherhood