Fatherhood in Turbulence: Recent and Contemporary Developments in Legal Fatherhood and Child Custody under European Human Rights Law

The legal standing of fathers has always differed from those of mothers in custodyrelated adjudication. A shift from the long-standing pater familias thinking to more mother-oriented approaches in the field has characterised the past century in family law, but contemporary developments have challenged the status quo and continue to shape legal fatherhood in new ways. The purpose of this article is to identify the legal trends that inform the approach of the European Court of Human Rights to fatherhood, the development of these trends, and what this can tell us of the future of legal fatherhood in European human rights jurisprudence.