Shared Parenting in Europe: Should Legal Measures Encouraging Shared Parenting be Considered to be in the Best Interests of the Child under European Human Rights Law?

With the commonality of parental separation in Europe today, safeguarding the best interests of the child has become increasingly challenging. The potential of shared parenting to serve the best interests of the child and to safeguard parental rights post-separation have been drivers for its increased prominence in public discourse, and some European States have already adopted legislation to encourage or even set it as a preference over sole custody – a change that has doubtless been brought about by studies on child welfare and advocacy for parental equality. The aim of this article is to analyse the concept of shared parenting through the lens of European human rights law in order to discover how it is viewed in relation to the best interests of the child, and whether having legal measures in place to encourage it should be considered a component of the best interests of the child.