IAFL European Chapter Young Lawyers' Award 2025
Posted: 5 Mar 2025
What is the subject of the 2025 Young Lawyers award?
This year entrants are invited to submit a paper relating to a case study regarding international surrogacy and legal parentage. Full details of the case study are below. Entries should ideally be written in English. However, translations can be obtained if any applicant prefers to write in their own language. Entries should not exceed 3,000 words (excluding references).
Who can submit an entry?
Entrants should be qualified practicing family lawyers of up to ten years qualification and/or experience who are residing in a European Chapter jurisdiction. Applications from trainee lawyers, pupil barristers or the equivalent are welcomed. Entries should relate directly to the case study below, and should not have been published or be under consideration for publication elsewhere.
What is the timeline?
The closing date for entries is Friday 30 May and submissions should be sent electronically to Ele Dexter, IAFL European Chapter Manager, ele.dexter@iafl.com. A panel of European Chapter Fellows will judge the entries based on the legal analysis of the questions asked with regards to the case study. The winners will be announced on Friday 11 July.
What are the prizes?
First Prize is €1,000. Two runners up prizes of €500.
The winner and runners up will also receive a subsidy of up to €500 towards travel and accommodation plus complimentary registrations at the IAFL Introduction to European Family Law Conference to be held in Hamburg, Germany on 23 & 24 October 2025.
Case Study
For the purpose of the case study, please assume that Delia and Samson are both citizens of your jurisdiction and habitually resident in your jurisdiction.
Delia aged 32 and Samson aged 37 are married. Delia was born without a womb, but she has fully functioning ovaries, and Samson has no infertility issues. They always knew that as a result of Delia’s disability, she would never be able to become pregnant. They thought about adoption but both wanted to raise their own genetic child, and they therefore decided to seek the help of a surrogate mother to carry their child.
Having undertaken a good deal of research, they engaged the services of a California surrogacy agency, and entered into a commercial surrogacy contract with Jemimah, who is divorced and has three healthy children aged between 7 and 15. Jemimah is a full time home-maker who always enjoyed being pregnant, and she intends to use the money from the surrogacy to build a college fund for her children. The surrogacy arrangement was very expensive as Delia and Samson had to pay the surrogate compensation of US$45,000, plus expenses of another US$30,000. The agency fee was US$25,000 and the US lawyers fees (including Jemimah’s lawyers fees) came to a total of $50,000. The medical, insurance and escrow costs were an additional sum of $150,000.
Jemimah successfully carried the child, who was conceived following the placing into her womb of an embryo created with Delia’s egg and Samson’s sperm, and she gave birth to Eliza a healthy child on 27 October 2024. Eliza was made the subject of a California pre-birth order and was given to Delia and Samson immediately after birth. The birth certificate names Delia and Samson as the parents as does Eliza’s US passport. All US legal formalities were complied with and under US law Delia and Samson are recognised as the sole legal parents of Eliza.
Samson returned home when Eliza was 2 weeks old as he had work commitments. Delia returned home with Eliza on 14 January 2025, and Eliza entered your jurisdiction on her USA passport on a visitor visa which records that her parents are Delia and Samson. Samson appeared delighted to see his wife and daughter and they talked about making an appointment to see a lawyer to get the paperwork started for a parental order.
On 25 January 2025, Delia arrived back home from the shops and discovered damning evidence confirming without doubt that Samson had secretly been having an affair with his secretary and she was now pregnant with his child. Delia was devastated and took Eliza with her to her mother’s home in New South Wales, Australia, leaving a note for Samson which read: ‘I cannot believe you have betrayed me like this, I hate you. Our marriage is over and you can do what you want with THAT woman and your new baby. Eliza and I don’t need you and you will never see or speak to either of us ever again.’
Samson guessed Delia had gone to her mother’s and, although he could not get any answer from his wife’s phone when he tried to call her, his sister has confirmed that both she and Eliza were safe at Delia’s family home in Byron Bay, New South Wales, but he would not be welcome there.
Questions for applicants to answer:
- Having regard to the law in your jurisdiction, how would you advise 1) Samson and 2) Delia in relation to:
A) whether they are treated as the legal parents of Eliza by virtue of the Californian birth order in their country of habitual residence; and
B) if not - how they can apply (separately and/or jointly) to acquire legal parentage of Eliza in your jurisdiction? - What, if any, remedy does have Samson have to secure the return of Eliza to your country of habitual residence?
- If Samson cannot secure the return of Eliza what if anything can he do to ensure he is able to have some form of contact with her?
Good luck and remember entries should not exceed 3,000 words (excluding references)
