Section 2: Conflict of laws relating to parentage

Parentage is governed by the personal law of the mother on the day of the child’s birth; if the mother is unknown, by the personal law of the child.

However, if the child and his father and mother or one of them have their habitual residence in France, whether common or separate, possession of status produces all the consequences that flow from it under French law, even if the other elements of filiation could have depended on foreign law.

A voluntary acknowledgement of paternity or maternity is valid if it was made in accordance with either the personal law of its author or the personal law of the child.