ABSTRACT
Family includes spouses (even if family life has not been established)471 and children, including illegitimate children,472 adopted children473 and cohabitation of certain kinds. In Eriksson v Sweden 1989,474 a child had been taken into care at a very young age, and an unjustified refusal to allow the mother to take the child back was held by the court to be a breach. In Hokkanen v Finland 1979,475 it was held that a father was entitled to access to his child. In Keegan v Ireland 1994,476 the court held that it was a breach of Article 8 for the child of unmarried parents to be placed by the mother for adoption without the father’s knowledge and consent, even though the father and mother had ceased living together before the child was born. A father’s objection to his child being aborted was however held to be incompatible with the mother’s rights under the article.477 In Moustaquim v Belgium 1991,478 it was held that deportation of a second generation immigrant from Belgium where his family lived was a breach of this article; this outweighed Belgium’s claim that his deportation was needed to prevent disorder and crime.
