Zitat:Koons v. Italy (application no. 68183/01)

The applicant, Jeffrey Lynn Koons, is an American national who was born in 1955 and lives in New York. His son L.M. was born in New York in 1992 from his marriage with a Hungarian national who had acquired Italian citizenship by naturalisation. L. M. who has Italian and American nationality, lives in Rome with his mother.

The applicant and Mrs S. have been litigating in the Italian courts about who should have exclusive custody of their child since 1994. Mr Koons complained of the Italian courts’ decisions, firstly to keep the child in Italian territory, thus preventing his son from visiting him at his home in the United States, and secondly to award custody to the mother, later to Rome social services and then to the mother again. He relied on Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (right to respect for private and family life).

The European Court of Human Rights noted that the Italian authorities had made a thorough assessment of the family situation and the interests of all concerned, especially those of L.M., in order to find the solution most likely to provide him with a stable home environment, (Lebensmittelpunkt) a necessary condition for his healthy and balanced development. It considered that the Italian judicial authorities had made every effort to protect the higher interests of the child, while always recognising the applicant’s right of contact, in a difficult situation marked by constant disagreement between the parties and their inability to put their son’s well-being first. (Vorrang des Kindeswohls) The Court held by five votes to two that there had been no violation of Article 8. (The judgment is available only in French.)