M. Stürner and I. Riva address whether Italy may refuse recognition of a German judgment establishing paternity post mortem because certain relatives did not participate in the German proceedings. The Italian Court of Cassation held that their non-participation did not, by itself, make the judgment contrary to Italian public policy.
The decision also relied on the high reliability of the German legal order. The authors assess that rationale critically in light of the equality of legal systems.
Whether Italy may refuse recognition on public-policy grounds of a German post-mortem paternity judgment when certain relatives of the deceased did not participate in the German proceedings
The publication gives concrete form to the weight that non-participation in foreign proceedings may carry in the public-policy review of foreign family-law judgments. It also questions the relationship between recognition reasoning and the equality of legal systems, providing a comparative point of reference for cross-border paternity and succession disputes.
IPRax · 2026
Publication ID Heft 5/2026 (September 2026) · 479
